Steven Universe: Mars
by FeanorArran
Summary: Part 1: While exploring some of his astral abilities, Steven discovers new places, more about gem culture, and the existence of a new threat. Written in 11 page increments in the spirit of the short episodes, and the spirit of the characters has been honored.
1. Chapter 1: Please

Rating: T

Reading Level: 8

Content: Steven Universe fanfiction, Golden Topaz introduction arc

Acknowledgements: Steven Universe original concept and ongoing productions created by Rebecca Sugar

This Story by: FeanorArran

Chapter One: Please

Lion was sprawled out across the entirety of the mattress, fore paw twitching after some dreamland game. "Ugh, Li-onnnn," moaned Steven. It was time for bed, and after a day pursuing corrupted gems through the beta kindergarten, he was exhausted.

Lion opened one eye, looked him up and down, and shut it again. Refusing to be denied his own sleeping space, Steven knew drastic action was called for. Negotiation was not an interest of the big cat. Or following instructions. Or answering his own name. Steven wedged himself between the wall where the headboard would be, and Lion.

With his back on the wall, he pushed with his feet as hard as he could against the big cat. Steven grunted heavily. "Lion, I love you, but I want my, urrrgh, bed!" Lion batted an ear. Steven sighed. After a brief pause, he had another idea. "If you get down, I'll get you a Lion Licker," he sang. Lion rolled away from Steven, causing him to flop forward face down onto the bed.

"Thanks, Lion," he said, muffled by the comforter.

After feeding Lion his bribe, Steven lay down under his poster of the solar system. Sleep came quickly, and he didn't notice Lion pulling the comforter off of him and curling up under it himself. For a moment Steven was flying through the clouds above Beach City. From here, he could see the temple, the ruined docks, the lighthouse, Funland, all of his favorite places. Flying dreams were the best.

He went higher. "I wonder how high I can go in my dream?" He soared above the clouds, higher and higher, until the blue of Earth's sky became a glow below him enveloping the globe in its fullness and warmth. "This is AWESOME!" he cried, and accelerated upward. He soon ripped past the moon. He went faster. Soon he was tearing a serpentine path through space.

A planet lie ahead. Its surface was red and orange. A great mountain could be seen, even at this distance. "Mars! Cool!" Steven raced onward. Soon two rocky moons streaked by.

"We are stillness!" cried a voice Steven had never heard before. It was such a shock he stopped right where he was. It was a strange thing to say. What the tone delivered was anything but 'stillness'. The word 'stillness' echoed throughout his dream. He proceeded onward, now curious as to who might have been speaking before. Soon he was on the sandy surface, facing an ancient flow of lava now formed into basalt.

Steven listened. Mars was windy, but strangely quiet. Was that someone crying over the sound of the wind? He listened again. There it was! Steven bolted in the direction of the voice.

"Hello?" he shouted. The wind picked up, and a dust devil formed. "We are the temple of tranquility. We are the counselor and the healer," said the voice, clearly coming from nearer the mountain. The voice was calmer now, but there was an edge in it. Another voice spoke suddenly, whispering venom. "You are only an implement of destruction!" it accused.

There, under an overhang, was the glint of reflection that made Steven suspicious. It wasn't the shine that put him off, however, but the tone of the new voice. "Helloooo!?" he shouted again, heading towards the glint.

Apprehension built as he approached the cleft. The structure was well hidden. He crossed a ravine and began to ascend towards what appeared to be a window. Steven realized he was not moving nearly as quickly as he was before, and it was because of the fear swelling inside him. That second voice had a quality to it that was- something. The word defied his grasp, but 'bad' was weak.

"We are the temple-" started the first voice. "Weapon!" hissed the second. The voices were much stronger now. The fear inside Steven made him stop briefly, but he determined that if he was projecting, no one could hurt him, and soldiered forward. He arrived at the glass. It was a generous window, set well under what seemed to be an overhang formed deliberately from lava. There were a few rooms visible, but only one seemed to have a dim kind of light inside.

"We are the weapon- Temple!" said the voice again in frustration. Steven went to place his head against the glass, and ended up sticking his head through it incorporeally. Inside was a simple room. There was a gem-style door like on Earth, a bed, and a table.

It reminded him of the way a hotel room might be set up. There was the window forming one side, with its view out under the basalt shelf and onto the long plain where the distant dust-devil now roamed, raising clouds of sand and dust in silence.

The wall on his left led to the recessed door, with what looked like a crystal that might correspond to an Amethyst or other Quartz gem. It seemed to have some designs on it, but they were so eroded by time that only faint outlines remained.

The right side of the door ended at what seemed to be Gem technology. It reminded him of one of his father's stereo cabinets, filled with obsolete sound gear. Whatever was inside, or whatever it was, seemed inactive. It seemed to be a cabinet about a meter deep to the door and three to the wall on his right.

At the corner of the cabinet was a small pedestal or table, carved from the same basalt as outside. On it was a device, with twelve characters in the Gem language, changing. Two of the characters on the right side matched. A clock? It was soothing to watch the graceful shapes change.

There was also a bed, or table, on articulated joints, almost like one that could be found in a hospital. There seemed to be something on it. Only when it blinked did he realize it was a Gem. Steven jumped back in shock. She was so motionless that she seemed to be part of the bed, rather than a person. He'd never seen a gem so motionless. The only one that even came close was Garnet, when she was meditating, and even she couldn't remain so still.

Dust covered her, and was so thick he couldn't discern her features very well. She wasn't dead- Gems 'poof'-ed when they were defeated, and only the destruction of their stone could result in death.

"Hello?" said Steven, uncertain if this gem could hear him. Her eyes were open, and the bed was propped up to see out the window. Someone must have cared a great deal about her to do that. But something about her expression seemed a little off.

Steven thought. If this was her dream, she would have seen him well in advance of now. His only approach was directly in front of the window, but she seemed utterly unaware of him. If this was his dream, what did it mean? Could he really be _on Mars_?

"Wooohoo!" he shouted. The gem's eyes scanned the room. She even moved her head. Had she heard him? As she moved, dust fell off of her, first in little bits, then in a large cascade triggered by the first part, onto the floor. On the floor around the bed was evidence that this had gone on periodically for ages. Could she not move? Was she reacting to him? How long had she been here?

With what seemed to be a tremendous effort, she rolled her head to her right and back so she could see the clock. More dust fell, revealing more about her. Now most of the dust was off of her. She was yellow and brown. Her garments seemed to be a slender dress combined with Greek style overdress.

Tones of gold and rust made up most of her, with shades of sky blue and silver fade at her edges. A strange thing about her was what could loosely be referred to as her hair. Other gems had crisp lines and rigid patterns; this one was a mess. It was strange. Then he saw her gem stone.

It was a golden stone cut into a briolette, a tear drop, presented with the main facets upward. Its light was what brightened the room. Where his Crystal Gems could project light as an electric torch might, this gem was giving an unsolicited, golden glow similar to a night-light. The light source that had been illuminating the room was this gem, and now shapes in the room began to cast true shadows. But the light was imperfect. He looked closer.

He gaped at what he saw. Her gem was cracked, a fissure hewn into it very deeply. Wedged perfectly into the split was what looked like a gem shard, like the ones that made up the mutants he and Connie had encountered in the hospital. Steven shook his head. He wanted to talk to her.

He drew a deep breath and bellowed at the very top of his volume, "Hello!" The Gem started, and began to look around without sitting up. Her eyes peered into the shadows. "Hello?" she whispered uncertainly. Steven cheered. She could hear him. Steven continued to howl for her. She searched the room again, but strangely, did not sit up.

A sound gained his attention. At first he couldn't find the source. A vibration, somewhere nearby, much more subtle than a device set on vibrate was making the air tremor slightly. Then he realized it was the clock. Eight of the characters now matched.

The clock wasn't telling time, it was counting down. The remaining four characters were changing shape, matching more and more closely the ones that already matched. The sound now had the attention of the golden gem.

Her expression went from vague unhappiness to unrepressed fear. Her expression, more than the realization that the clock with the hypnotic characters was counting down, set him on edge. Whatever was about to happen was connected to the countdown. He looked with resentment at the clock. It was crystalline, and the characters had seemed so benign.

"We are-" her voice was now filled with a tremor. "We are- are- stillness of temple- no-" she said as her fear built up. "We are stillness," she said, only to have the other voice whisper in acidic tones "destroyer." This made her wince. The clock began a barely audible grumble as the ninth character matched.

"We are the counselor and compass," she tried to return to her mantra. "Deceiver," returned the whisper. The clock's sound, to Steven, was slowly becoming some sort of evil incantation. It had started as a benign, confusing oddity. Now it carried some subliminal fear to it. Maybe it was just the way she looked at it. "We are the healer and herald of peace," even less convincingly than before. It was barely words now. "Bringer of the end," said the other voice.

"Shut Up! Who are you!?" demanded Steven, who now had enough of the mockery. If he could be here invisibly, could someone else? This startled the gem even more. He decided to remain silent. He wasn't helping.

The clock now vibrated and sang its spell. Even now, it was barely a buzz or growl, but the difference now and when it had begun was the balance of a mere sound, and a door to unspeakable evil being left open for all the sounds of things lying in wait to drift out. His gem gave one last heroic effort in her terror to restore her calm in the face of whatever was about to happen. Another character matched, leaving only two.

"We are," she muttered.

The clock growled on with tangible malevolence.

"the- the-"

One character.

"the weapon of the temple," she flubbed weakly, wincing, concluding the wreckage of her mantra.

The last character changed, and the face began to flash. Steven braced. A static hiss began to issue from a speaker concealed somewhere on the device. Different tones, moments of silence. There were no blaster cannons deployed, no explosions, no poisonous gas. Just noises.

"That's not so ba-" Steven looked at her. She reacted to every change in tone, each hiss and silence with varying degrees of sorrow or horror. Whatever was coming out of the clock had real meaning to her. Tension built in her as the recording went on.

There was a clear, perfect silence. Then someone yelled an impassioned 'No!' followed by a wicked crack and tinkling noises. Then silence. All of the life seemed to drain from the gem. Even the warm colors emitting from her gem cooled until they were nearly imperceptible. There she lay with her eyes open, staring into infinity through Steven's chest, moving only her lips.

Steven stood in front of her, and leaned to match the lay of her face on the bed. "It's over. Hello?" He tried reading her lips. It took a moment. "So sorry," was all she said. Sorry, for what? He looked into her eyes, and in the space where pupils should have been, he saw a scene beginning to play out there. He found himself being drawn into the scene.

"Whoa!" he said as suddenly he found himself in the scene with her. He looked around. Nightmare shades of darkness combined with dim lights, defining gems' eyes in the distance, looking on with judgment as several ruby fusions of varying builds forced his golden gem and a purple-and-pink one, onto their knees. Each of the Rubies were armed with massive hammers, not summoned but artifacts forged for war.

A purple and white gem approached the kneeling figures, but her own shape was blurry, obscured by time. Only her face was sharply defined. She exuded confidence and mockery. Her feet crunched over rubble as she went, sounding like she was walking over crushed ice. Steven followed behind her. The golden gem cried out.

"What have you done? You had no right, no authority for- this!" she motioned around at the blurred rubble. The purple and white gem, clearly a quartz of some sort shrugged.

"Do you not think consequences were in order? I think it's fitting." Now the pink and purple gem made her own protest.

"No, not this! Never this! This is wrong!" she argued. The quartz just shook her head and turned away. Then she looked at the golden gem and pointed. The gold gem winced, then noticed Steven. As she noticed, the scene began to change, and some of the gems began to vanish away as the imaginary things they were. She was separating from her nightmare and entering the dream in the same astral state Steven was in.

The quartz snapped her fingers. "Start with that one," she said airily and turned away as if bored by the whole thing, then winked out just like the others were doing, as the dream unraveled. One of the Ruby Fusions stepped back, and got a huge back-swing on her hammer.

The golden gem stood up to look at Steven, then realized what was happening. Every gem vanished but the pink and purple one, who suddenly lunged herself sideways. As she did, the golden gem reached for her partner.

"No, stop!" she cried, but by the time she reached and cried out, the pink gem was no more. The golden gem just froze there, with her hands stretched out. They were surrounded by darkness. Only the light of the golden gem wavered and played, dimly.

"Who are you?" She asked mildly, without turning around.

"I'm Steven. Who are you?" he asked. Tiny globes of light fell from her eyes to the ground, where they arced and spat for a split second as they hit.

"We were Golden Topaz. Now we're just a broken gem," she said, showing him her flawed stone. "Are you real?" she asked. Steven was taken aback.

"Yes. Of course I'm real." As he spoke, the hospital room with the clock re-materialized, this time with her own astral form beside his.

"Good. Then you can help me stop this thing," she said with force. She placed her hands together, focused herself. Energy seemed to accumulate in them, then she thrust them forward with conviction at the clock.

A globe of visible force or energy materialized around the clock as she did. She struck the globe, and a visible jolt of some yellow, fluidic energy shot through her astral form, which flew across the room and against the wall. As she struck the wall, her astral body vanished.

Her physical form jolted into wakefulness and upwards, until she hit the energy restraints. Bonds across her wrists, abdomen, and ankles flashed, again sending energy through her. She screamed for a few seconds as the energy coursed, then it stopped and she dropped again onto the bed, limply.

Embers of dust wafted into the air, glowing with heat. She lay with her head still to the side. Here eyes were open. She was back to watching the countdown. Heat built in Steven. At first he thought the room was becoming warm, but he remembered he was astral.

This was anger. A deep seated feeling of rebellion and injustice was growing inside him. He looked at the clock. It was already down to four characters, and making its grumble again.

"Steven," said Topaz. He whirled around, wide eyed. "You can see me now?" he said, astonished. "I had to believe," she responded. "Come close."

Steven did as he was bidden. "I can give you one of my powers," she said, not moving. "Oh! Like Garnet and her future-seeing!" he blurted. "I can give you the ability to touch the physical world from the astral plane," she said. "I want to be done." Steven nodded, and leaned in.

Golden Topaz kissed his forehead, and a confidence and might surged into him. It was different than the seeing he got from Garnet, but he could feel it. He stepped over to the clock.

How had she done it? Steven placed his hands together and- froze.

Eyeball.

He had healed that Ruby, and for his trouble was almost murdered. He'd freed Bismuth. She had been obsessed with vengeance.

Centipeedle. He had almost healed her, but he lacked… He looked at Topaz.

"You're a healer?" he asked. Two numbers remained on the clock. Through her terror, she whispered "We are the Counselor and Healer General of this world. We are at your mercy. Please, before it changes," she begged, her tears popping and arcing in the dust.

Steven focused his outrage into his hands. Whatever flaws or character Topaz was bringing with her, he would cope with it later. He mustered his outrage and rebellion, and thrust like Topaz had. His hands struck the energy barrier, which was pink this time, but his half human nature allowed him to ignore it in the same way he'd ignored other fields, and he followed through.

He felt the clock as a dim pressure, and the clock slid towards the edge of the table. It hit a lip and almost stopped, hanging halfway off. Time and motion paused as it hung. Steven looked at Topaz.

She watched the clock, gazing at it, trying to move it with the force of her will. Her eyes, still scenes of memory, like Lapiz's had been, tracked the clock to the floor. A resounding crack filled the room as the face flew off, a crystalline cube popped out, and green gel began to ooze out of where the digits had been.

As the clock destructed on the floor, a peace filled her form, and a golden, silver glow filled the room warmly. Her eyes fluttered, and dropped closed. Her astral form rejoined Steven. It was imperfect, the fissure in her gem affecting her shape. Her composure in her astral form was much better. A reverse pixie cut adorned her head in orange. Her garments were crisp and neat. She bowed.

"You did it!" she elated. "We have been trying to turn that off, or destroy it for-" she thought. "Since the time of the fifth planet. We don't know how long that is." She looked out the window. "It's been so long since we've seen the sky with our own eyes," she said aloud. Topaz turned toward her body, and cautiously ran her hands over her wrists and across her neck.

"The barriers are gone!" Steven beamed. Topaz took a long, cleansing breath, and knelt to look Steven in the eye. "Thank you, Steven. The sounds of our imprisonment were left as part of our punishment by a wicked and thoughtless Quartz. It's good to know that you carry on the values of a true Quartz," she said, examining his gem. "A Steven." She stood up. "So much has changed."

Steven opened his mouth to correct her, but decided that would be later. He liked that she accepted him as Steven first, rather than the Rose Quartz she saw. She stood straight, and turned towards the door. "You rescued us, Steven. What wish do you have that we could grant?" she said as she began to walk towards the door. "Though, with our imprisonment, we can only answer your questions."

She stepped confidently and immaterially through the door, gesturing for him to follow. Steven followed her excitedly. He was bursting with millions of questions. The most important one burst out first.

"Can you teach me how to-" his jaw dropped as they stepped into the hall. Six colossal statues of fused gems stood on plinths. In Topaz's silver glow, their glass surfaces shone, their faces exuding confidence, or authority, or power, or ferocity, or glee.

The gleeful one seemed to resemble Sardonyx, but the others were strange to him. The hall was arranged in a way that made the fusions look like they were discussing something. On either side of the door they had 'used' were a few other doors just like it on either side, and on a balcony above.

Across from where they had exited was a great hallway leading off into darkness. Lining the feet of the plinths were statues in the same colored glass, of whom Steven presumed were the gems who joined to make the fusions.

Topaz was watching him. "Teach you how to- what?" she asked obligingly. Steven realized he wasn't paying enough attention and blushed. "How to heal corrupted gems," he said. Topaz held up a correcting finger.

"Don't rush to judgment, Steven. Your idea of corruption may not be well-tuned as you think. Just because a Gem does something you personally don't approve of doesn't mean she needs to be 'healed'- that kind of thinking has caused more harm than good," she began, misunderstanding.

"No, no, not corrupt, Corrupt!" he said again. Topaz only stood there and smiled, placing her hands together, closed her eyes and bowed. "We're not listening properly. We apologize," she said simply, without derision.

Steven's hands flapped as he spoke, remembering Centipeedle, and what happened to Jasper. "They've been totally changed- Centipeedle was the captain of a starship, but now she's a bug, Jasper fused with a corrupted gem and it spread to her, and now she's a- a- monster!" he blustered. Topaz's expression changed from pure patience to deep thought.

She moved to the base of the plinth a serene looking fusion stood upon, and hopped up to sit at its feet. "We'd have to see this process, Steven. We've never heard of this before." Steven started to reply when he realized one of the gem statues that made this fusion looked very much like Topaz. Yellow glass glowed in Topaz's light, the expression of pure tranquility. It stood with its head back, eyes closed, and arms arranged in front palms up with fingertips touching.

Topaz saw Steven staring at the statue, and stood on the plinth next to it. "Oh dear," she said, blushing. "Yes, that is us." She made the pose. "What do you think? Is it right?" she asked. Steven smiled.

"I like the real one more," he said. Topaz curtsied. "Thank you. Fluorite made it. She made all of this. She was a genius," said Topaz, gesturing broadly to the entirety of the room. "Except this one," she said, stepping over to the statue across from hers, pink and purple glass, holding a pure glass globe.

"This one had to be made by Bismuth," she said, smiling. "Fluorite would never make a statue of herself." She caressed the statue's hand. "Said it would be too difficult- she couldn't see herself to make it proportionally. I think she believed it was self-aggrandizement. And Bismuth was happy to do it- Fluorite saved her the trouble of building this shrine."

Steven watched her as she told her story, looking into the face of Fluorite's likeness. She had the same look Pearl got when she talked about Rose Quartz. "She was always making jokes and finding the better side of things." Topaz turned to face the center of the great hall and raised her arms in joy, and hopped off of the plinth and floated off in a pirouette, to a circular inset in the floor between all of the titanic carvings.

"This space was once filled with Gems, seeking guidance, sharing ideas, communicating, asking advice-" As she spoke, all of the faces and facets shone, giving depth and detail to the figures as her enthusiasm and illumination grew. "needing aid, caring for each other, finding out new things-" she said, finishing a turn facing Steven, fists clenched over her pear-cabochon stone, " _Learning!_ "

Light filled the space as though the sun was shining down on Beach City and reflecting off of the sand. Hues scintillated on the walls, playing and moving as though it were reflecting off of the ocean. "We were in service to all of Gem-kind on this world, and it was a great honor and joy! The Quartzes ordered this shrine be erected so we would have a place to meet with the people and listen to their stories," she went on, gesturing to the fusion that stood above the likenesses of Topaz and Fluorite.

"We were foundation of peace here. Our strength and calm guided the people through many hardships," she smiled with her arms outstretched as if to embrace the serene colossus. Topaz's glow turned to a warm, deep gold, making the plinths look like they were made of the metal, and making her own likeness radiate.

"We loved them as they loved us, and they trusted-" Topaz froze. The light in the room suddenly quenched the same way it did when the sun disappeared behind the temple in Rehoboth. It diminished until only Topaz herself was visible, as though some night had fallen inside her.

She now had on the same expression she did when the evil little clock had gone off. A new voice spoke, in whispers, low caustic tones. "Weapon. Compass to destruction. _Herald of death_." To Steven, it sounded familiar. Topaz shook it away.

"And now we will guide you from the same sacred spaces," she said weakly, trying to regain her confidence. "We will be your teacher, if you'll have us," she said, regaining some of her energy. Steven realized that the voice intoning derision and doubt was the voice of that wicked Quartz, the one from Topaz's memory. Steven tried to ease the tension down a notch. He looked up at the titanic symbol of strength and calm.

"Who is she?" he asked. His question wasn't quite what Topaz was expecting.

"They are Diorite," she said, light again building, just a little. "They were the builder of unity and peace, the bedrock and foundation of society," she said. "We're sorry, Steven. You won't be meeting them," she said, and sighed, and began to walk toward the dark hallway. She stopped in front of Fluorite one last time.

"We wish you could have met our Fluorite," she said. She tried to project an image, as Pearl often did, from her stone. For a brief instant, Fluorite appeared from Topaz's memory. She seemed every bit as cheerful and bright as Topaz had said.

But the image lasted only a second before it flickered and disintegrated into a few glowing purple embers and was gone. Topaz stood where she was, and only looked at her broken gem. She nodded. Then she looked at Steven again, smiled, and kept moving down the hall.

"We will teach you how to project. Then you can show us 'corruption'." They made their way down the hall. On either side of them were murals. Gem spires, figures of power, depictions of diplomacy, of star systems, maps, Gem writing.

It was art, intended to be art. Steven had got the impression from Peridot that art was somewhat unknown to gem kind. Clearly, at least here, that was untrue.

They arrived in another hall. This one had its own illumination. A long center aisle stepped gently down many meters between rows of glittering glass seating, each seat equipped with a small table surface.

As they descended, Steven noted how some of the tables and seat backs had been scratched, and he realized that it was graffiti _!_ "What does it say?" he asked without thinking. Topaz stopped, and examined it. As quickly as she bent to look, she threw a hand over his eyes, and quickly sputtered "Ew, ew no don't read that." She led down to the front.

The front was simply a stage under a huge hemisphere. Steven had noticed that Topaz's travel varied from walking to gliding like Sapphire did, depending on her mood. Presently her feet moved under her narrow maxi skirt. She almost did so without disturbing the dress, moving her feet in semicircles instead of kicking the illusory 'fabric'.

She didn't swing her arms either. They stayed clasped inside her long, flowing sleeves. Only the passage of the fabric through the air caused it to linger in the spaces she had passed through. Topaz stepped onto the stage. Something seemed to sense that she was on the stage, and the lights dimmed. Instinct told Steven to have a seat in front of the stage.

A spotlight focused on Topaz. Another one focused on a space to her left. She sat quietly, and folded herself into a half-lotus with her back straight and eyes closed, facing out and up towards the seats, just breathing. Steven noticed how the stage was only elevated a few centimeters and that even the first row of seats, including his own, were higher than the stage. He looked at her in silence, learning what he could about her just by observation.

First, he noticed her poise. Nothing on her moved. Her pose reminded him of the temple statue, with her arms extended, palms up. Her gem state was a clear indication of how she was feeling. He'd never seen that before. Earlier it had glowed with the brilliance of the sun. Presently, it was almost transparent with the odd flicker of yellow, except for the pink and purple fleck embedded in it.

"Steven," she said mildly. "Yes!" he said, startled. Topaz looked at him, then at the empty space next to her, in the spotlight. She sighed. "Come, sit with us. Please," she invited, without moving. Steven did as he was bidden. He got up, mounted the stage, and

stopped abruptly, at the edge of the circle of light, realizing whose place it was, and not daring to even cast a shadow there.

"It's okay, she won't mind," said Topaz. A single drop of golden light fell from her cheek onto the stage, noiselessly. Steven sat as respectfully as he could manage. He tried to sit the way she was, and ended up shuffling more than he really wanted to.

"Steven."

"Yes!" he said, quietly.

"We can only teach if you question."

Her stone flickered transparent and yellow. Steven realized that she was still fearful. Boldness filled him. She had promised to share her knowledge.

"Teach me what you're afraid of, then," he said, hoping he wasn't going to regret asking. He remembered having to face his guilt and anger in order to fuse with Connie properly. Maybe this would help Topaz. She looked at him, a little shocked at his observation. Then she nodded.

"We learned that to be trusted, one must first be willing to trust. The last time we trusted so deeply, we-" she took a deep breath. "-We were hurt. Terribly and deliberately, by a close friend." Steven made a mental note. Was that Quartz the one she meant? "But that's not all, is it." Topaz shook her head.

"No, not all. We are afraid to wake up." Steven didn't understand this answer. "What? Why?"

"We will have to face our broken-ness, and solitude."

"I can heal you! I can rescue you!" countered Steven. Topaz sighed.

"Steven, this stellar system is so far from our home galaxy, it's a miracle you're here at all. We mustn't expect you to be able to find your way back here on your own with so little experience as an astral body. And to get here physically…" She leaned toward him, putting her hands down to support her weight.

"But we are truly grateful to you. You have freed us from part of our prison. It is more than we could ever have hoped." Steven sputtered. He wanted to shout at her how close he was, how he could absolutely heal her cracks and flaws, how he would never give up. Topaz was aware of his turmoil. She returned to her pose in silence for a moment. Steven felt the calm issuing from her, and he calmed as well. Her poise was perfect. Her pose was welcoming. Her smile was gratitude. Steven felt the turmoil melting away.

"Like this," she said without being prompted. "We are stillness," she said, and waited. Steven took the cue. "We are stillness," he repeated. Topaz nodded.

"We are the temple of tranquility." Speaking the words eased the need to protest from him. "We are the counselor and the compass of empathy, we are the healer and herald of peace." It was peaceful. There hadn't been Gems on Mars for thousands of years. He felt for Topaz- she'd been alone all this time. He would bring the Crystal Gems with him, and she would no longer be isolated.

"Our pleasure and honor is to be in service to others." Earth was in danger. It had become clear the Diamonds were now intent on re-claiming the Earth. He would protect it, and all of his friends. Steven didn't need his eyes open to know her gem was returning to its golden form. The words felt good in his ears.

They repeated the mantra several times. Each time the words felt smoother, and stronger, and each time his were louder than Topaz's. Steven opened his eyes. Topaz was reclined on the stage, looking with adoration up the center aisle.

There, in all her glory, was Fluorite, and the classroom was filled with thousands of gems. Fluorite stood next to a Bismuth, and in the air before her was a globe of glowing glass. It changed shape several times as the two spoke and shared. Bismuth would point at it, and Fluorite would change it, then she would have an idea, and it would change again.

Fluorite was taller than Topaz, nearly as tall as Bismuth. Where Topaz was dressed simply, in vestments that suggested her post, Fluorite wore garb similar to Bismuth, a smock and apron most suited to a crafter. As the scene wore on, Fluorite and Bismuth came to some understanding about whatever thing it was they were discussing.

Gems around the amphitheater spoke in little groups. Everyone was smiling. Voices from the past filled the space with excited chatter and laughter. Steven turned to Topaz. She was now lying down, head propped on an elbow, watching the crowd. Her eyes and gem glowed with affection.

Steven noticed that as her eyes became narrower and narrower, her astral form was becoming more and more transparent. "Topaz! What's happening to you?" he gasped. Topaz lay her head down on her arm, and looked at him.

"We're falling asleep, Steven. Soon all this will give way to dreams. Thank you for coming. You've saved us." She looked like Connie did just before she fell asleep face down in a book. "Now maybe the future won't be so bad. Please don't be angry. We can't fight this." Then her eyes slid shut.

For a brief instant there was only the empty amphitheater, and the growing glow of Topaz even as she became more transparent. Then the scene gave way to the Hall of Titans. Music, composed mostly of chimes and woodwind played as Topaz and Fluorite danced together among hundreds of other gems who let them have the center and looked on with admiration.

At first Steven wanted to jump up and ask more questions. He wanted to learn about this place. He wanted to learn how to project images, he wanted-

He wanted to interrupt. To interrupt the first dance Topaz had with Fluorite, or anyone, in- in- 'since the time of the fifth planet'. Wasn't Jupiter the fifth planet? Instead of getting up, he simply sat and watched.

Gold and pink light flooded the room a champaign glow. The titanic statues glistened. Every detail of the space reflected light. Every stone of every Gem shone in her light, and Steven realized that the light was for them, and the happier they were, the brighter Topaz glowed. Another light seemed to be casting shadows, and when he looked up, it was the sun, a bright spot compared to the one he was used to from Earth, but still enough to illuminate.

The space he'd seen earlier had basalt ceilings. As the sun fell, outside the sky bloomed into magnificent and absurdly deep shades of blue he had no names for.

"Steven?" Pearl's voice snapped him out of his reverie so hard he sat bolt-upright.

The sky was pink. The grass was pink. In the distance was a tree on a hill. He couldn't breathe.

"Steven? Steven!" came Pearl's voice. He felt a great weight on him.

"Steven- Lion! Get! Up!" Pearl ordered. Steven pulled himself into Lion's mane, then shoved himself out again.

Lion was asleep at the top of his bed, belly up. Pearl helped him crawl out of the the mane. "Steven! I swear, sometimes… Are you alright?" she asked.

"We have to go to Mars!"


	2. Chapter 2: Dream

Chapter Two: Dream

"Garnet! He's talking crazy! Mars!" Pearl ranted. Garnet knelt down for Steven. The preceding evening he'd either dreamt or traveled astrally to Mars, and she needed to know for certain which it was.

"Pearl, please. Steven, tell me about your dream," she asked. Garnet had just returned from checking the bubbled entities in the temple depths, and meditating on timelines to foresee the places gem monsters or gem mutants or dangerous artifacts might be.

Steven was upset that he wasn't being taken seriously. "I was there! Really!" he pleaded. Garnet nodded. "Go on," she said, mildly. Through the seriousness of this moment, even as discordant as it was, she could feel her pride swelling. Steven was as much a caretaker as his Mother, and as much an explorer as his Father. Each time he faced a new challenge, he conquered it with aplomb. She wanted to burst, cry out, cheer him on. She was certain he was being truthful, but she couldn't let on how proud she was.

"At first, I thought I was dreaming, like with Lapiz. I was flying over Beach City. I wanted to see how high I could go. First I passed the moon, then some rocks-"

Garnet interrupted. "Rocks like the ones we found you with when you got blown out of the moon base?" she asked.

"Yeah! Then I flew past two really big rocks-" Garnet smiled. She wasn't feeling the smile, but it was a cue for Steven to listen without being intimidating or authoritarian. "Did they look like big potatoes?" she asked.

"Wow- did you have the same dream?" Steven asked, beginning to doubt himself.

"No, Steven. Those are Phobos and Deimos, moons of Mars. I think you were there. Tell us what you saw," she urged. Bolstered, Steven went on.

"Well, once I got there, there was this room, er, actually there's a whole shrine for her, so she can help people. There's the statue room and a big amphitheater classroom, and a whole bunch of little rooms, and some hallways." The gems were looking at each other, and he knew enough to stop.

"You said 'her'- 'her' who?" asked Amethyst.

"Golden Topaz! She is the, uh, the Counselor and Healer General of Mars. She's really nice, but she thinks that I'm in the homeworld galaxy and that she's going to be alone forever and I _have_ to go back because she's cracked and-" Garnet hugged him quiet. Pearl placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Counselor and Healer _General_ of Mars. And a Topaz? Steven, this is just so- amazing! Garnet, this is exactly the kind of ally we've been looking for," she said, trying to curb her excitement. Her face darkened a little. "But on Mars? There weren't any bases on Mars that I knew of." Pearl placed her hand on her chin in thought.

"If Steven says she's there, we should look. We haven't been to Mars, and now we have a ship that can make the trip. But we need to talk this out. I've read about Mars, and it sounds rough. We'll need to prepare. And we'll need to tell the others." Garnet stood.

"Uh, hellooo, does anybody else wanna know why she's by herself?" demanded Amethyst. "Oh, she was imprisoned by a crazy quartz. It was awful," blurted Steven. Amethyst crossed her arms.

"Eh, yeah, but _why_ was she imprisoned? Did you ask?" Steven felt heat in his cheeks. "Er, no, we were talking about her friends and Fluorite and Diorite." Amethyst frowned. "So, 'no', right?" Steven deflated. "No." Amethyst sighed. "What _do_ you know about her?"

Steven stood in front of them making wild gestures as he told them the story of clock, the forcefields, the recordings, and how Golden Topaz reacted to all of it. He described what she had told him as they talked in the halls of the shrine. He told them about how Topaz had simply asserted that he wouldn't be meeting Diorite, and how she wished he could meet Fluorite.

He left out the evil voice of the quartz that lingered in her mind, tormenting her. They didn't need to know about that, and he wasn't sure that was his story to tell anyway. That would an intrusion.

The Gems sat on the couch looking at Steven in silence as they often did when processing some startling new thing he'd told them. Pearl's color was off, and looked utterly creeped out. She kept her hands clutched over her chest.

Amethyst's expression of disgust was unhidden. "But you don't know what she _did_. Someone thought she was bad enough to leave there for who knows how long. Ugh," she said and flopped back onto the couch. Pearl looked at her in shock.

"Did you _not_ hear what someone did to her!? Who deserves that!?" she exclaimed. "Steven, I owe you an apology- it's just, sometimes your stories are a little far-fetched," she said. Amethyst rolled her eyes, and then rolled over.

"I know nobody _deserves_ what she got, 'kay? But bad things happen to good people, and sometimes bad things happen to bad people, too. Remember what happened to Jasper." The couch muffled her voice, but her feelings on what happened to Jasper were still evident. Amethyst then rolled off of the couch and stepped into the open kitchen to the sink.

Garnet abruptly stood, said "I need a moment to think," and stepped out the front door. Pearl watched her go out in puzzlement. Amethyst put on her best 'I-don't-care' face as she gulped down drain crystals and burped purple flames. Steven dashed out the door after Garnet.

He thumped against the rail next to her, and looked up at her. Where her stoic lips would be was a tiny downturn. She looked out over the Atlantic and exhaled. Then she looked down at him with affection. She took off the mirror shades she liked so much, and looked Steven in the eyes. There, he could see how much what was going on affected her as all of her eyes glistened.

"Garnet?" he asked. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"This Gem you met, whether she's bad or not, has been done a terrible injustice," she said. She put her shades back on. "You remember when we told you how Gems are made. When a Gem emerges from the ground, she knows her purpose, and how to act. But even then, she still has other things to learn, like Gem culture, Gem etiquette," she sighed. "-and Gem law. Every law that I know is against the way your Golden Topaz was punished."

Pearl's voice came through the screen on the front door. "That kind of incarceration, for the duration you described, violates every ethic I remember starting with or learning."

"Even I know it was wrong," said Amethyst through the window before belching another purple plume of fire. Pearl sighed. "Honestly, you know how you are with lye and aluminum- go outside!"

"My bad. Gang way!" said Amethyst as she trotted out through the door and down the boardwalk to the beach before letting loose another outburst. Steven held his breath as the toxic fumes dissipated.

"Are we going to go get her?" He asked once the haze had faded. Garnet looked down at Amethyst gulping down ocean water, then over her shoulder at Pearl, who now opened the door and stepped out.

"We need to think about it. All Topaz were banned in this sector of space long before we were sent here. And we need to tell Lapiz Lazuli and Peridot. And your Father," said Garnet. "I want to be here when you try to make contact with her again. Please wait," she instructed.

"But why? You can't see what I see- unless I leak like Pearl does-" he said, earning himself a quick 'shh' from Amethyst and a "What!?" from Pearl. "Amethyst, you've burnt the shades again. Come inside and help clean up!" she said.

"Because I think your Golden Topaz is imprisoned not because of what she did, but because of what she saw someone else do." Garnet turned to face him and knelt down to his level. "I trust you to do what's right, Steven. What I don't trust is what Gems have done to other Gems. I don't want you to learn or see something terrible without someone ready to answer your questions about it. Even grown Gems sometimes don't handle it well." Steven shrugged.

"I think she's asleep- no, something, uh, bigger than sleep- right now. I don't think I could see her if I wanted to. It'd just be dreams." Garnet nodded.

"Even so. You've had a very busy night as a Crystal Gem, so take today off." Garnet turned to look down the beach. "There's Sadie and Lars. You could go get some doughnuts!" she said brightly. Steven looked where Garnet was pointing.

Sadie and Lars were sprinting up the beach as hard as they could manage. Sadie looked like she was about to faint, and Lars looked excited about something. Steven hugged Garnet and dashed down the boardwalk and met his friends at the bottom.

"Steven," said Sadie, between breaths, "we saw a flash! Is everything okay?" she asked, looking around for the usual destruction.

"Yeah! There was this awesome mushroom cloud and flames-" Lars added, hoping for more fireworks. Amethyst moaned.

"Ugh- it was just a little indigestion. Gosh!" she said, flipping her hair. Greg rounded the corner at the opposite end of the beach.

"What's with all the smoke? Not another gem monster I hope-" he said, spotting Steven immediately and running directly to him.

Amethyst growled. "Aluminum makes me burp, okay!? I can handle spicy food! Leave me alone!" she said, stomping back into the house. Pearl spotted her. "Oh, good, now you can help get this carbon off of the window." Amethyst mumbled something back as the door closed behind her.

"Greg, may we please get a ride out to the farm?" asked Garnet. "Sure thing," replied Steven's Father. "Hey, buddy, what's happening?" he asked as he trotted up, winded from his run around the base of the rock the lighthouse stood on.

"Lots of stuff!" Steven related the previous evening's goings on as Greg, Sadie, and Lars listened intently. Garnet waited patiently for Steven's story to come to a close before calling to the other Gems to get ready to leave.

Sadie was astonished. "Steven, that's terrifying! I don't even know what I'd do if I found myself on another planet!"

"Greg, we need to get going, please." Garnet led the other Gems down the wooden walkway as they argued. Pearl was lecturing Amethyst again.

"-so next time just choose a less volitile cleaner, that's all I'm saying."

"Well I'm sorry, but I wanted something with bite, and bleach is mild sauce. I'll just have it outside next time." They followed garnet down the beach. Garnet paused and turned around as Greg joined up with their little group. She made eye contact with Steven.

"Day. Off. And no sneaking off to visit with Centipeedle!" she asserted.

"She's right! Lucid Dream Astral travel, and rest, of the real kind, are two very different things!" added Pearl.

"See you as soon as we get back, I promise," called Greg. Garnet did her 'heart' sign and finished the goodbyes with "Love you," and the party disappeared around the corner.

Steven and his friends went back to the Big Donut and sat in the dining room sampling the latest flavors of fritters. It was decided that the plantain fritters were probably not going to be in circulation long. They talked for a long time as Steven wondered what the other Gems were talking about, and worried about Topaz. Sadie realized that he wasn't paying attention as she finished her story of the scorch mark in the supply room.

"-hair product and fire suppressant left a near-perfect gelatin mold of him. I think it saved his life. He's still afraid of dough hooks- Steven?" She stopped her story, knowing that he was a hundred-million miles away. Steven tried to fake his way out of embarrassment.

"Uh, napkins are always freeeee," he sang.

"Wow, you really were in outer space, weren't you," said Lars bluntly. Steven blushed.

"You're really worried about this Golden Topaz." Sadie frowned at him. Steven was all heart. She wondered if there was some way she could help him or be supportive.

Steven nodded. "Yeah. Garnet says someone 'did her an injustice', but Amethyst doesn't think I should trust her, and Pearl isn't sure how she feels about it all. They want me to wait." Steven tossed back his milk, and slapped the carton down on the table, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Ugh. I hate waiting!"

Lars growled and went behind the counter as Sadie and Steven watched. After a moment of rummaging around, he set a box down on the glass. Then he operated the till. Sadie and Steven stared.

"I used my discount. Maybe this'll help." They continued to stare. "What!? He said he hates waiting. That's the most sense Steven's made in *ever!" said Lars. Steven leaped up and opened the box.

"There's even a bag of Lion Lickers! Thanks Lars!" Steven burst. Lars shrugged. "Hey! Nobody hears about this. People will think I've gone all soft," he said. "Now go home and do weirdo stuff, and get your mind off of your Mars friend. I know I don't like it when people bug me when I'm sleeping."

"I know that's true. Last time I had to kick you out of the employee room you almost bit me," added Sadie. "And feet don't belong on the break table. Take care, Steven. Sometimes waiting is just better."

Steven searched up the planet Mars on the web. He studied maps, the poles, landings by various space agencies, composition, and moons. He knew the Shrine was near a volcano called Olympus Mons, but that alone was the size of Texas.

"Ugh!" He flopped onto the couch. Lion cocked his head at Steven. He looked at lion. "I think Amethyst does it better." Lion grunted, and then flopped down next to him, forcefully shoving the table into the middle of the floor.

"Yeah I do," Amethyst said as forcefully as she breezed in through the door and flopped onto the couch next to him. "You didn't go see the scary Topaz lady without us, did you?" she asked, with uncharacteristic empathy. Steven could hear the van shut down outside as more doors slammed and feet walked on the steps.

"Nope. Lars got us donuts." Amethyst looked at him doubtfully as the rest of the gems and Greg came in. " _Lars_ did," she said. Lapiz and Peridot came in next, followed by Greg and Pearl, and finally Garnet. Lapiz looked pointedly unhappy. The others were animated, but seemed interested rather than upset.

"Yep. I've been reading instead," he said, and showed her the tablet and the articles on Mars. "Saved you some," he said, handing her the box. She put a Bavarian cream on the box, and devoured both in a single bite, leaving the last three donuts on a napkin. Then she punched him in the shoulder. Amethyst wasn't an overtly affectionate Gem.

"Ah! Mars! Good man. Way to be on the ball," Steven's Father plopped down on the opposite side Amethyst was on, observing Steven's tablet. "Whad'ja learn?" Steven sighed.

"There's almost no air. It's super cold, unless the sun is out, then it's hot but also cold. And there's lots of radiation." Steven remained in his post- 'flop' position. "She's by herself. She's alone there, and she's been alone for all this time, and she's hurt."

Pearl frowned. She'd seen Rose Quartz worry like this over Gems, and now he more than ever, reminded her of Rose. "I wonder how bad it is," he finished. Garnet gestured as she sat on the floor and Peridot scooted two chairs over from the dining area. Pearl seated herself by Amethyst.

"Sit up, buddy," urged Greg. "We need you to know what we talked about," he said as he put a big hand under the boy and lifted him upright. All of Steven's Gem friends were here, all of his adults, and they seemed pretty serious. Steven gulped. "Er- so, everyone's here," he started.

"Oh, Steven, you're not in trouble- but what you've done is amazing," said Pearl, realizing how tense he suddenly was. "We're proud of you. Making contact with people on another planet, unaided by technology is- just- well-"

"Hugely awesome!" interjected Amethyst in her sassiest tone, but her enthusiasm was quickly replaced by concern. "But, uh, this person," she started. "Golden Topaz-" Steven corrected. Lapiz shifted, and Peridot jostled with excitement.

"-Eh, yeah- we're concerned that she may not be who she says she is." Steven stiffened. "She wouldn't lie!" he protested. Peridot stood from her chair with her hands up in submission.

"No, no, Steven! We don't mean to say she's lying. But on the home world, Topaz is just a nurse, or a confidant, or some sort of servant, like a Pearl-" this earned her a sharp look from Pearl, "er, home world Pearl. 'Counselor and Healer General' is a second-in-command position, what humans call a 'lieutenant'. Only Quartzes, like Amethyst or you would be allowed to have that position. A Topaz, even a powerful one like a yellow one wouldn't be allowed to have it. It upsets the traditional hierarchy of gem kind." Peridot finished, but remained on her feet.

"That's the only reason, Steven. We come from a specific culture, and she doesn't seem to, uh, 'fit' into any of it-" Pearl said hesitatingly. "And being astral might not completely protect you from harm." She sighed. "We worry."

"Boy howdy," added Greg. "But here's the rest, Steven; we know we can't stop you visiting with her. We don't even know if you could choose not to. So we talked it over and figured something out." Steven waited. "We just want to wait until you can ask her why she's there and what happened to her before we go see her, and maybe rescue her," he said.

"Really!?" Steven exclaimed. "Wait- 'maybe'?" he said, a little crestfallen.

"Yes, maybe. If we believe we can bring her back safely, we will. If we can't, she'll remain on Mars, and you can see her astrally," said Garnet, and added as Steven began another protest, "because if you can't heal her, we may be unable to move her."

"- Oh," said Steven finally. That was one thing he hadn't considered. What if- "oh," he repeated.

"I brought some paper so you can write down your questions," said Pearl.

"This is your, uh-" Greg began. "- 'thing'. You gotta do it the way you think it needs to be done. But just be careful, and wait to tell us when you, and she, are ready. We need to do it right, the first time. This is in space, not just around the block." Greg leaned over and kissed Steven on the forehead. "Gosh, I'm proud of you," he said. Then he spotted the donuts on the other side of the snoring Lion. "May I?" Steven nodded. He spotted Lapiz still not making eye contact with anyone.

"Lapiz? What do you think?" Lapiz started, not expecting anyone to ask her opinion. "I hate that anyone could be imprisoned like that. It's-" she shuddered. "I remember how I felt. But they're right. We don't know her. What if it's a trick?" Steven frowned.

"It doesn't feel like a trick. Wouldn't a trick be more… 'Trick'-ish?" he asked. The other Gems looked at each other and nodded. Garnet spoke finally.

"This is your show. Just check in once you make contact and get some answers. If you have questions for us, ask." She stood, and the others took this as dismissal. Lapiz went outside with Peridot.

"We'll just fly back to the farm, it's not far. Night Steven. Be careful." Peridot climbed onto Lapiz's back.

"Maybe I should start teaching you about the home world gems," she said. Pearl whirled around from the sink where she had begun cleaning dishes. "Ahem- 'We' will teach him about the home world," she asserted.

Over the course of supper, Greg and Steven sang songs, talked about the farm, and talked about Steven's impressions of Topaz. "She never moved, I think. It's hard to tell in the astral thingy. It's so dream-like." Greg picked his guitar, working a bar, and finding little satisfaction with the result.

"Never?" It seemed odd to him. The four Gems he knew were never still. Garnet liked to sit for a spell and think, but he'd never seen a Gem absolutely motionless.

"Well, she looked at that clock," Steven answered. Something about the clock made him shudder, and it was a strange and visceral satisfaction that came from the knowledge that it was destroyed. "I think someone hurt her. On purpose," he said and shuddered again.

Greg wrapped his arm around his son. "Hey, you said she's alone, right? Don't worry. We'll handle it." Steven smiled. "You're all heart, bud. But you gotta take care of you, sometimes, too." Greg stood and saw the wall clock. "And I've already kept you up too late, c'mon, let's get ready for bed."

"Is it okay if I go and check on her tonight?" Steven asked. "I just want to see if she's awake. I have a million questions for her."

"Absolutely. And I'll be right down there," he said, pointing at the couch. "Peejays, face, teeth, c'mon, you know how this works." Greg scooted Steven down the steps. "Pearl, at least let me dry-" he said to her washing dishes, as Steven disappeared into his washroom.

An hour later Steven was soaring past the potato moons of Mars. Below he could see the great mountain. It was a volcano. This alone was a thrill for him- Olympus Mons was the biggest volcano in the entire solar system! But he remembered that the location of the shrine was not in any of the craters, but at the edge-

Steven stopped. This search could take forever. The mountain was absolutely huge. He thought for a while, trying to discern land features, looking for familiar things.

The laughter that rang out was so startling that his astral form jumped. He slapped his forehead. "Or I could just listen," he said aloud. The sound was so clear he could almost see the music and voices. He followed it downward in the spiral it wove. The sound of it seemed made of happiness.

Notes from what sounded like crystal bells and champaign-filled goblets chimed, joining more faint tones from a woodwind flute, while the voices of Gems harmonized. There were no words, and none were needed. Steven found the overhang with ease.

This time he took a moment to look around, and make a solid note of his location. Facing out from the cleft was a shallow ravine that led downhill from right to left and then off to a canyon. Rising above the basalt revealed that this was not actually a part of the giant volcano, but some sort of canyon structure possibly caused by it. Steven carefully made notes for as long as he could stand it before rushing down and inward to join the music.

It was easy to make his way visually. An orange glow filled the cavern, and this, even more than the music, made him smile broadly. Was this the same music from before? He entered the room, and it was lit without the tint of the glass that looked out into the cavern and down the slope to the ravine in Topaz's purest light.

Topaz was dreaming. He remembered that entering her dream could result in it being interrupted, and much as he wanted to ask questions, he couldn't bring himself to stop the party. He chose instead to explore. Steven re-examined the room.

There was the gem door, the bed on which Topaz lay, the piles of dust on the floor- Steven stepped back and straightened. There, in the shadow of the bed she lay on and illuminated from, broken and missing its face, in a hardened pool of green gel, was the clock.

The gel glowed dimly, bright enough only to illuminate the shape of the crushed case of the thing. Even now it seemed to lie, as though its silence was another trick to add to its betrayal. It failed to do anything for several minutes. Next to it was the tiny crystalline cube.

Steven examined it more closely. As far as he could tell, there was nothing at all notable about the cube. He noticed after a moment, that there was another cube inside the shattered shell of the clock. They stopped being interesting once he realized he could neither manipulate them nor understand what it was inside the machine they did.

He moved into the great hall. Here, he found absolute darkness. For a moment he didn't understand why it was dark. Then he remembered the last time he was here, Golden Topaz had illuminated the spaces. He remembered how bright it had been. But it wasn't a pink glow, it was yellow. Steven blinked.

It was his own gem glowing now, remembering the joy and pride Topaz had been feeling that seemed to power her light. After several attempts to focus it, he seemed to have it. It was a thin, focused beam, even if at first it was only a dim glow. At least now it was useful. He ignored the memory of how her light died when she seemed to remember something.

That was something he was going to have to learn. This place, this new person, seemed to be made more of memory than material. Awful things had been done here, and eventually he would have to learn about them. Especially if he was going to be asking questions. Especially if the Diamonds were coming. What awful things would he learn? Fear caused him to be cast back into darkness.

"Aw, come on," he mumbled, and conjured a bit of light again. Now he could see the big statues, and re-visited Diorite, Topaz, and Fluorite. Fluorite was a beautiful collection of pinks and purples. Her smile was as inviting as any he'd seen, her gem cut in a spiral. He examined her globe for a little while. It was as featureless as the cubes from the clock.

Off to his left was the hall that led down to the amphitheater. Four other unexplored passages led away from the hall of Titans. He decided to explore systematically. The first passageway to the left went only a few hundred yards until it terminated in a hall lined with balconies and doors. Each one was similar to the one to Topaz's room, and after inspecting a few, discovered how bare they were.

Each one was set up the same way, with the entrance recessed on the left side next to a cabinet that seemed to be filled with technology of some sort. Once past that, the room proper was an ample space, a cube as tall as it was wide or deep, with a floor-to-ceiling window. Strangely, none of the windows faced out onto a view. Instead, there seemed only to be a basalt or granite wall partially merged into the windows. Each room had a small table high enough only to accommodate an equally small seat or cushion.

Down the next one, before the one that led to the amphitheater, was a room filled with seats at consoles and monitors, scrolls of acid-etched foil, and many, many more of the tiny clear cubes. Each of the consoles seemed to have what almost looked like a multiple-cube changer/player, like Greg's CD changer from the old days. Cubes littered the consoles and the floors.

He re-visited the amphitheater, and found the same stage and seats as were in the last visit he had here. He looked around a bit, and found on one of the desks, what looked like a pencil. Rather than having a lead or ink ball or a felt brush, it looked quite sharp. He went to the stage. No lights came on for him, and he felt a little cheated, until he remembered who the spots were for. In the back were boards, marked still with lessons. There seemed to be stick people in various circles, some of them intersecting, some of them not.

The next passageway led to a space similar to the one filled with consoles, but this one had only two consoles, and the rest of the space was filled with machinery. All of it was strange to him. Some of it looked like it had moving parts, some of it looked like more instrument cabinets. A few of the machines looked distinctly like robots from an assembly line.

The next and last passageway led to a room that was filled with what at first seemed like junk. Large, broken cylinders were stacked on crossed girders like wine bottles. Armitures and servos and joints were hung from chains in a serpentine that descended from the ceiling in echelons. All of them showed wear. Several stacks of cones lined another wall. In bins, strange, worn-looking ovals only as large as misshapen jars or mugs made from metal occasionally overflowed onto the floor ages ago.

Unable to touch anything, he was getting bored. He started heading back to where Golden Topaz was, when he noticed the music was gone. Alarm filled Steven and soon he was cheating walls and making a straight line through structures to see her. Steven found her lying as he had left her, head turned. Pink light bathed the room as a new scene played out in her unfocused eyes.

Steven decided to check on her, gently. Maybe she was having a good time, but he had come all this way to make sure she was well. He peered as he'd done before, and was drawn into her dream. Steven was off to one side, and remained as motionless as possible.

In front of him was Golden Topaz, in the arms of her Fluorite. Fluorite's large form was reclined against a large rock, and Topaz's much smaller form was reclined in her lap, looking at the sky. Her face beamed.

Topaz pointed at some falling stars. "Oh, there's more!" she said quietly. Steven realized the falling objects were moving in 'V' formations, and were probably spaceships. Fluorite looked up from some thought of her own. "Oh- ah, yes," she said, clearly faking interest through her frown. Topaz turned to face her.

"What is it?" said Topaz, her glow diminishing significantly. Fluorite held up an object she'd just drawn from the ground beside her. Steven sneaked closer. Fluorite's hand held what looked like flakes of rust, but as she handled them, they behaved more like paper, or fur, and glinted wetly. He realized that the same material was all over the ground he was on, and thickest in the low, wet places. "Has this ever been done before? It's- frightening," she said. "Sshh, don't worry- they're starting in the desert on facet eight. It won't affect us, or your- creatures, and in any case they can't start without me," Topaz said soothingly.

Fluorite smiled half-heartedly, then drew Topaz into a deep embrace. Topaz could only embrace Fluorite's arms as the larger Gem settled back to better see the sky. Topaz nestled into her embrace, and nearly closed her eyes. When she thought Topaz wasn't looking, Fluorite looked again at the material in her hand, her frown now deepening. Topaz looked up at her again with a broad smile, and pointed at another formation of ships.

"Steven? Steven. Time to wake up, buddy," said Greg. The image raced away, replaced by a sideways view across his bed and into the living space of his house. "You've hit the eight-hour mark. I don't want your sleep-cycle to get messed up."

"Awww, I think I was about to see something!" Steven sighed. He liked what he knew of Golden Topaz, and what little he knew of Fluorite was pleasing as well, so he was upset that he'd been interrupted. His tummy growled.

"Sounds like it's time to eat. Let's get some breakfast, and you can tell me and Pearl what you were seeing." Greg got into the refrigerator as Steven sat down on the other side of the counter from him. Pearl placed a rolled tape measure on the counter beside a pin cushion and scissors.

"Were you there again? What did you see?" asked Pearl as she took up the tape, held out Greg's left arm, then took a measurement as he obediently held it out for her and looked on with confusion. Steven began to recount his explorations, giving as much detail as he could.

Pearl nodded as he gave the descriptions of the various places. "It almost sounds like a base. The only thing it's really missing is the living space devoted to its principal, and the parking basement for ground vehicles and trans-atmospheric ships." Pearl stopped what she was doing. "Steven, I apologize. You must have been off world. We haven't taken you to this kind of major gem hub." She wrapped the tape around Greg's neck gently and took another measurement as he scrambled eggs,.

Greg finished whipping the eggs. "Maybe you can draw it for us. Pearl put a pencil and paper out for you." Pearl measured down from Greg's hip and muttered. "That was supposed to be for questions, not drawings, but maybe it'll help."

Steven pushed the table back by the sofa, and began work. Pearl and Greg watched him as Greg tried to serve up the toast and eggs, and Pearl started her own notes and sketches. Greg set a plate near Steven and sat down next to him with his own plate.

"Pearl?" started Steven. "Yes?" Pearl stopped sketching. "How long is she gonna be asleep?" he asked as the domes and hallways took shape on the paper. "I don't know. I wish I did." She stopped what she was doing and sat down beside him.

"I think you were right when you said 'not sleep, but something 'bigger' '. If she's been there for five thousand years, and awake that whole time, and with that horrid recording- who knows what kind of rest she'll need." She leaned forward and put a hand on his arm. "I want you to know, no matter what she's done, you stopping that machine was the right thing to do. Now let's see," she said, as Steven smiled weakly at her and handed her the drawing.

"I hate waiting. I can wait for toast, or for the pizza guy. I can even wait for a new episode of 'Crying Breakfast Friends'. But when I don't know how long to wait-" Greg finished his toast and nodded. "Its like cabbage."

"Is this another of your food analogies?" asked Pearl as she examined the drawing. "Yes, it is. You wouldn't have hotdogs if every porkchop was perfect." Steven laughed. "Yeah," his smile fading as quickly as it came. "Oh, but I don't want a Golden Topaz hotdog. I want her to be the perfect porkchop she deserves to be!" Greg nodded.

"What goes with a good porkchop?" Steven shrugged. "Barbecue sauce?" Greg nodded again. "I was thinking sauerkraut. It's just cabbage, but aged in brine and spices. To get good sauerkraut you have to let it age, but ya also gotta keep an eye on it." He looked at Steven wisely. Pearl rolled her eyes behind Steven's map.

"I think what Topaz needs is a good dose of sauerkraut." Steven was awed. "Whoa," he said. "So you're saying that I need to let her marinate until she's ready to become the greatest porkchop ever!" Pearl lowered the map and looked at Greg with one eyebrow raised.

"Now you're making 'Golden Topaz sauerkraut'?" Greg cleared his throat. "Eh, something like that. It sounds like she needs a while to, er- do- Crystal Gem, uh, stuff," he sputtered as the last of the mangled analogy wore through.

"- to balance her inner energies, ground her magic, and rediscover her connection with the universal vitality." Pearl nodded. "We're all here, and we're all waiting with you."

"To sauerkraut." Greg held his 'Empire City' coffee mug up in a cheer, and Steven met it with his own 'Cookie Cat' cup. Pearl tapped both mugs with the tip of the pencil. "To sauerkraut!"


	3. Chapter 3: Patience

Chapter 3: Patience

Steven spent the day drawing with his collection of recycled crayons and watercolors. He drew each of the halls from various angles, the passageways and what he could remember of the murals, and the machines that sat in the fourth hall.

Then he tried to draw Topaz. He tried several times, but discarded each drawing, unsatisfied with the hollowness of the representation. Finally he focused on just drawing her gem. Greg and Amethyst had also joined him drawing.

Greg had rendered several stage sets, guitar builds, and one of Rose Quartz in front of a fiery sunset, with the beach and surf in the background. Amethyst drew several pictures of gray and brown blobs. At first Steven couldn't figure out what they were, then he realized she was drawing the rocks that she thought of as friends in her kindergarten.

Amethyst saw the gem he'd just drawn. He'd done it as large as the 8x11 sheet he had, and had done it in as much detail as he could remember. She stopped what she was doing and looked at it for a long time. It took a moment for Steven to notice.

"Is that her?" she asked simply. "Yeah, well kind of." Steven scrutinized the representation. "No, it's good. Can I see?" Amethyst traced her finger over it. "Poor Topaz. She's really hurt, isn't she. But what's this?" she asked, indicating the purple fleck.

"I don't know. I just wish we could go right now," said Steven, groaning. "Oh, Steven, when we go, it'll be all of us, and that's the first thing we'll do, 'kay?" Amethyst had seen many injuries, some on herself. This was like nothing she'd ever seen. Greg looked at the picture. "Hey, er. Can you tell anything about a Gem by, uh, her stone shape?"

"There used to be all kinds of talk about it, back in the day. It all sounded like superstition to me. Gems could end up with any kind of shape. But you'd really have to ask Pearl or Garnet about that." Greg nodded. He leaned in close to Amethyst.

"Hey, do you know what Pearl is up to? She was taking my measurements earlier-" Amethyst looked up from a rendering of the amphitheater. "Ha, I don't even know what she's up to when she _tells_ me." Then she looked at him with a wicked grin. "Good luck." Greg frowned.

"I'm gonna do some meal planning. Maybe bratwursts," he mused to himself. "Steven, take it easy today. Maybe get a nap, 'cuz you look exhausted." Steven and Amethyst smirked as Greg made his escape from any further experimentation by Pearl.

That evening Greg made sauerkraut, bratwurst, and brussel sprouts for dinner, and for a little while Steven's mind was relieved of its duties worrying about his newest friend on Mars as he demolished two helpings.

Amethyst put Steven to bed early that night, knowing he wanted to get back to Golden Topaz as soon as possible. "Make it half a night, Steven. You didn't sleep good. Nobody wants you to give up being healthy so you can watch over her."

"But she's been there forever, and-" Amethyst shushed him. "-If she's as good as you say, she won't want you up all night, either. Now go say 'hi'," she said, and went down to the couch, where she lay down to keep watch over Steven.

Navigating to Mars was a little tricky. First Steven had to sort out which way the Earth was facing, then feel around for Mars. Once he was close enough to see it, getting the to giant slab of crumbling rock and the grotto that framed Topaz's window was now child's play, especially when she was dreaming, which was always.

He went to her window. Inside, the light was low, and she was lying on her side. Her face was framed by her widow's peak and the long locks on either side resting on her broad cheekbones. Her eyes were where one might first observe that this gem was injured. They seemed closed, but occasionally they would play the scenes of her mind, or show only a mirror of whatever they were facing.

At first he wondered why he wasn't hearing the usual music. He moved through the window and suddenly wondered if there was an actual, proper entrance he should be using instead. When they came to get her, just breaking this window seemed impractical at best. The sound of voices, emanating from seemingly nowhere told him her dream had evolved into some sort of conversation.

Steven joined her in her dream, and found her in her dream with an amorphous purple blur. As the blur seemed to have suggestions of arms and legs, and was only as large as Garnet or his Mother, and the fact that Topaz was speaking to it told him it was a gem she couldn't quite remember. He listened.

"You've learned a lot, quite rapidly. Once more, but with a weapon. You choose this time," said the blur. "Staff, please," said Topaz. Steven looked at her. He had never seen her perfect form, without injuries. As tall as Pearl, athletic like amethyst, her dress unique to herself, like a the depictions of the women he'd seen on the amphorae at the museum Connie had taken him to.

The blur laughed. "I should have guessed. Starting position- Begin!" she said. The next moment was flurry of action as Topaz sparred with whatever teacher this was. At first Steven had thought this teacher was that first purple gem, but this voice was everything the other one wasn't. Its timbre was different, its pacing, it contained respect and recognition. This was some other gem.

The action was over only seconds after it began. It ended with Topaz on her back, disarmed, with the end of a glistening glass staff in her face. "Why did you lose?" asked the voice, seriously, but without derision. The blur extended what Steven presumed was a hand, which Topaz accepted and returned to her feet. "I was too slow," she admitted.

Too slow. Steven gawked. This sparring match was seconds long. He replayed it in his mind. Topaz had begun by summoning her staff, a process he assumed was similar to Pearl drawing out her spear. Two more Topazes had materialized from nowhere. All three had tumbled around the blur so fast he'd lost track of the real Topaz, and then they rushed inward at the blur. The blur had barely moved. The last movements of the encounter were either too fast or chaotic for him to observe properly. Or was this memory so incomplete it was missing those elements? Even the room lacked detail.

"It was good use of basic distraction and devision. With practice, you'll be able to use more advanced techniques. And I'll teach you how to charge your staff." The purple blur seemed very patient, and impressed. "With a bit more training, you'll be the finest defender in the sector." Topaz smiled proudly, but the smile evaporated when she spotted someone in the doorway. Steven looked. Fluorite peered in, but left the instant she saw she'd been spotted. There was no glow in her eyes or her gem, and when she left, she slunk away. "Go on," said the purple blur, knowingly.

Steven followed the dream Topaz into the passageway and out to a hall he'd never seen. On every side were balconies that extended in colorful layers up into clouds. In the center was a garden grown with gem plants similar to the water roses his Mother fostered on Earth, and others that resembled gem trees, and vines, and shrubs. Faceless gems from Topaz's distant memory conversed as she searched for Fluorite.

Fluorite was at one end of the garden, seated on a stone wall, looking up at a depiction of some important gem that occupied a space between six or seven of the lowest tiers of balconies. In one hand she held what looked a lot like a petri dish. In it was the furry material he'd seen her handling in the previous dream. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks. Topaz eschewed walking for sprinting to Fluorite at a pace Steven could hardly match.

"What is it? What's gone wrong?" asked Topaz in a panic. Fluorite held out her little dish. "The council won't recognize them as living beings." Topaz processed this for a moment. "What? For what reason?"

"They say," Fluorite sobbed and took a breath, "they say it's because they don't possess gems, and they exhibit no ability to project a superior protective form to interact with the world, so they have to be classified as 'semi-animate reactive clusters'." Fluorite exhaled. "They say it's a form of slow combustion, that seeks out its own fuel. But not life."

Topaz looked furious. Her gem went clear, or silvery as she took Fluorite's free hand. "That's nonsense! We've all discussed the possibility that there are forms of life that don't require gem magic- I'll be right back!" she snarled, and stalked off. Steven began to follow her, but stopped when Fluorite stood, and cast one last glance up at the mozaic that towered above them. Steven turned to see it.

The gem in the picture wasn't a hieroglyphic representation, but a more a still-life of a person posed. She looked somewhat like Jasper, larger than most gems. Where Jasper had the build of weight lifter, this one was more like an Olympic speed-skater. A wild, silver mane framed her face and ran down her back. Steven shook his head. This wasn't why he was here.

He dashed off in the direction Topaz had gone, and he could see her in the distance. She was heading to a passageway under the image of the wildly-maned gem, when the the floors and walls gave way to formless blue and yellow clouds. He looked around and watched the dream change. Had he disturbed her rest?

Now he was surrounded by warmth. For a brief instant Topaz flickered into being in front of him, aware he was present. It had to be her present consciousness, with its imperfections. This was the one Steven liked most, his friend, that he could interact with. She stood in front of him, ethereal and smiling. She spoke, but her voice was a distant and muted.

"Steven! You found your way back, you clever gem. Soon we'll be rested, and-" she began, but her image faded, and the sound of her voice went with it even as she continued to speak. "Wait! Wait!" he protested, but she was gone. The scene changed to her and Fluorite standing on a balcony, facing over a many-domed structure. The center dome was high and clear. Six rays, probably passages, led outward from the center to this dome and five others arranged in a star.

At the base of each point was what Steven identified as Pearl's hangars for the tiny cars and ships that came and went. In the distance over the horizon was an enormous gem spire, like the one Peridot had shown in the schematic he'd seen on the moon base. It reached up past the clouds and out of view.

He bathed in the warmth and peace near the couple before he realized he was himself falling asleep. Just as he felt himself slipping away from a lucid state and entered his own dream space, they smiled at him, and he was soon awash in his own imaginings.

The smell of pancakes drew Steven slowly from his dreamland day sailing with Amethyst. Grudgingly, his eyes mustered the energy to open. His body felt like he'd lay in one position too long. His mouth was dry clear back to his throat, so he closed his mouth, and realized how much he wanted water. Other functions made their needs known, and he suddenly found the energy to dip his toes into his slippers, and dash down to his washroom.

As he did, Amethyst stopped flipping the flapjacks to greet him. "Good morning!" she said brightly. "Mornin' Amethyst!" he said as he dashed. Amethyst served up his plate and set it on the bar. Once Steven had returned and seated himself and begun to tuck into his breakfast, she watched. He'd gone to bed at eight the previous evening, and now he was up eight again, and as rested as he seemed, she knew a good part of that had to be real sleep.

"So?" she asked, curious to learn some important detail about Steven's new friend. "Mmmf?" he answered with a mouthful of pancake. "Did you learn anything new?" she insisted. Steven washed his bite down with some milk.

"I- I don't know. I remember domes. And Fluorite was upset about mold. It was weird, and I don't know if it was just a dream or real," he said, thinking back on it. He realized he had no litmus test to discern between Topaz's dreams and her memories. He'd need to sort something out. He had a feeling that knowing which was which was going to be important.

"Mold?" Amethyst repeated. "Was it angry mold? Oh, oh, was it gem-eating monster mold?" she asked excitedly. Steven stopped cutting his pancake. "Er, no. It was just a petri dish of fuzzy 'stuff'. It kind of looked like shredded paper that was wet." Pearl had appeared on the warp pad, and now sat down next to Steven.

"That sounds like lichen, not mold. But not on Mars. Mars hasn't had water for ages. Why was she upset about it?" asked Pearl. "The leaders didn't want to say it was living, because it didn't- uh- do 'gem things', I guess. Oh, but Topaz was going to talk to them- and then she started dreaming other stuff."

Pearl shared a look with Amethyst that told Steven they had heard this before. "That sounds familiar," sighed Pearl. "That's part of what the Gem War was fought over, Steven. Let's finish breakfast. Connie will be over to do some fencing exercises."

Connie was Steven's best friend, and knowing she was coming was always exciting. They had been texting about his visit to Mars, and he wanted to share the evening's events with her. Today she arrived with shenai, bamboo practice swords. A very pleased Pearl had them spar each other for the first time. Connie kept getting the upper hand, and soon Steven's shoulder was very sore. Connie helped him up.

"You're not paying any attention. What's on your mind?" Steven took her hand and stood up. "I just wish I could take you with me. Mars is amazing. If I could just show you the shrine-" he said. "Time for a break," announced Pearl.

Connie listened to Steven describe the shrine to her. "It sounds beautiful. Maybe we I can go when you leave to rescue her," she elated. Pearl interrupted. "I think we should know more before we all jump to conclusions about who's going. That's long enough. Footwork!"

Steven spent the rest of the session matching Connie, and her enthusiasm. Practice went too fast, as always, and Connie had to leave. Steven spent the rest of the day at the Fun Land arcade keeping his mind away from Mars.

That evening after Garnet and Greg had given him his good nights, he made the trip to Mars again. He explored a bit more, and found one of the hangars Pearl had described. It was mostly collapsed, and Steven found only a broken hatch, a wheel and strut, and a series of broken-looking metal bottles.

He noticed how as he walked, he wasn't leaving footprints. Dust was everywhere. So- that tour that Golden Topaz had given was a _memory_! Everything was spotless when she'd shown him the amphitheater. In reality, every flat surface was covered in red volcanic ash and crushed rock dust of the finest grind, and reminded him of the graphite he'd used on a wooden car he and his Father had made. Steven knew he'd found one test for whether or not he was in a dream.

He made his way back to Topaz's room, and noticed that there was no music coming from her. There were no sounds emanating from her at all. It actually took a moment to connect with her dream. He knew why once he did- she was in the deepest kind of sleep, or whatever this was.

The world around him had no form but clouds of gold and purple. Clouds formed and wove, cascaded and played in a molasses flow, as though some giant was patiently dropping colors into various temperatures of fresh and saline water. It was calm here, and so quiet he thought he could hear the clouds moving.

Many minutes went by before he realized he was drifting off. The last memory he had before he slid away into his own dream-places was of being swaddled in purple and gold calm.

He awoke to Garnet and Greg talking about the fabric Pearl had asked him to get. At first Steven was surprised. He'd gone to check on Topaz, but the dream was barely a memory. Then he realized there wasn't anything to remember. His surprise turned to frustration.

"I fell asleep!?" he said aloud. Greg didn't miss a beat. "That's allowed," he called from the bar. "Did you ask your questions?" asked Garnet. "No. I think Topaz is in a really deep sleep." Garnet nodded.

"It's called 'torpor'. It's like hibernation. She's coping with that injury you described." She held up the picture of Golden Topaz's gem. "This has been useful, Steven. It's very well done." Steven beamed. "Just don't ask me to do hands."

"Here's the list." Garnet shoved a list across the bar to Greg. Steven spent the remainder of the day helping his dad research where to purchase 5mil mylar, a sheet metal brake, high-strength acrylic, and a 200 liter autoclave. After several frustrated telephone conversations, they went to the craft store and bought 30 yards of spandex, elastic, and thread.

That evening, Steven tried to reach Topaz again. Again she was in her deep sleep. It seemed like she knew he was there, or aware of his, or at least 'a', presence, but was so deep in her state she couldn't manifest.

He spent the next day with his Dad cleaning space in the back of the van for the items they had to pick up for Pearl. They quickly realized the autoclave they found wasn't going to fit, and had to rent a trailer. His Dad spent the day reading the instructions on the machinery after needing Steven to help unload it.

Another night also found Topaz deep in her cloud garden. Steven began to wonder if he secretly liked being here, in her gold and purple sky. He lingered for a bit, then explored. In the library, he tried reading a foil scroll that had been left open. It was useless, and he wondered if he should learn Gem-ese from Pearl. He returned, and found the same clouds he'd left. Faithfully, he stayed until he fell asleep.

The next night was much the same. Steven discovered that there was actually no exposed entrance to the shrine from the outside at ground level, nor was there evidence from the interior he had seen. Topaz's clouds were occasionally combined with the sounds of various voices, but the scene didn't seem to change.

For four more nights passed in the same way. Each night, Steven would visit, explore a little more, and finish by checking inside Golden Topaz's dream. It seemed to him that the voices were just a little louder and clearer than the last time, but he was uncertain if he was listening better or if they were actually growing in strength.

Steven awoke. He was actually reaching a point where he could awake, know he had been asleep, and simply sit up (provided Lion wasn't obstructing him) and get going. He stood, and went about his morning ablutions. Some emotion was lingering in him, but it was difficult to identify. This feeling seemed to linger in some metaphysical corner of his mind, afraid to make its entrance for whatever reason.

It took a quiet breakfast with Pearl and Peridot discussing seals and pressure for him to sort out how he felt. "Sauerkraut." Pearl and Peridot stopped mid-sentence and looked at him. Amethyst shook her head and gave her own council, "Not with waffles in syrup. Trust me on this, dude." Steven sighed.

"I didn't want to admit it, but I think-" he began, and paused. "If you just spit it out, it feels better. Stuff won't break 'cuz you say how you feel," said Amethyst. Pearl and Peridot stared at her. "What? I know stuff."

"I think I'm disappointed," Steven said quietly. "But I have to be patient." Pearl put her hand on his shoulder proudly. "Sauerkraut. You want a Golden Topaz porkchop, not a hotdog," she said. "That sounds disgusting." Peridot wrinkled her nose.

Steven hopped down from the bar stool, and got his shoes on. "I'm going to go do some shield drills at the arena and see if Connie can spar with me." Pearl blushed. "I'll finish here and join you!"

Connie arrived with Garnet and Greg, and everyone ported off to the arena. Once there, after the brief chaos of all the gems and humans getting seats, Steven and Connie started with some shield drills, and evolved up to sparring with the shenai.

Once the sun was high, Pearl dismissed the students to lunch. Connie, Greg, and Steven sat at the top of the seats. Greg had stopped at the grocery and served up finger veggies with a selection of dips. As they sat and ate, they Connie asked Steven what he'd learned over the night.

"There's no door. I looked everywhere that I know about, but either the outside is melted shut, or something I haven't seen or can't get to has been crushed." Steven selected a cauliflower as Connie went on.

"What about her dream? Is it still clouds?" she asked without noticing he had a mouthful. Steven nodded, and sighed. Greg clapped him on the arm. "Way to stick it out, buddy. You've really devoted yourself to this thing." Steven finished his bite.

"I just wish there was some way I could take you with me," he said. "Okay!" called Pearl. "Time to do some drills as Stevonnie," she said. Connie and Steven shared a look, and both dashed down the steps to Pearl. Garnet watched as they ran past her, and nodded to herself. "What's up?" asked Amethyst.

Stevonnie practiced against some of Pearl's illusory training drones, then upped the ante and faced Amethyst. A small rivalry had been brewing, so both parties engaged with no small amount of gleeful abandon, until Pearl had to call the match when another column collapsed; Amethyst wrapped her scourge around it and yanked with somewhat more energy than was necessary.

"Okay! Maybe that's enough for today!" yelled Pearl hoarsely. "Time to clean up!" Amethyst apologized to Pearl with Stevonnie, and the trio began collecting debris and sweeping up gravel and dust. Amethyst and Stevonnie both stifled giggles as Pearl growled at them. Garnet made her way down and contributed a bit to the clean-up.

As they worked, and were collecting the last bits, Garnet found Stevonnie, and they added their broken pieces of the column to the growing pile. Bits of statues and column settled as they did. "I'll see you two by the clothes line at the temple. We'll do some meditative focus," said Garnet. Stevonnie nodded.

Once the arena had been cleaned up, and all the gear had been collected, the group returned to the temple where Stevonnie un-fused. Greg had to return to the car wash to do some maintenance on an air mover, so Steven and Connie hugged him, and dashed off to the warp pad to join Garnet.

They arrived as Garnet hung some of Steven's trousers on the line. "You two must think you're clever," she said. Connie and Steven both shifted uncomfortably. "I don't remember what your mother said about fusion, or about joining Steven in an astral projection, Connie. Could you remind me what it was?" Connie blushed hotly.

"Er, she doesn't know." Garnet nodded. "I know." She finished hanging the last article and turned to them. "I understand your enthusiasm. I know how much you two love to be Stevonnie. I don't have anything against your fusing. What I do have a problem with is this secrecy. Sometimes all it does is tell people how much you don't, or won't, trust them."

Steven and Connie hung their heads. "We, er-" Garnet stopped them. "I'm over it. I want you to trust me, and the only way to earn that trust is for me to trust you." Steven and Connie brightened. "I'll be one of the people you can keep secrets with, but I want it understood that if I think something is too dangerous, I'm going to stop you."

"Thank you, Garnet!" elated Steven, who hugged Garnet fiercely. She couldn't stop her own smile. "Fuse," she said. Steven and Connie did as they were instructed. "Let's sit, and focus like I showed you last time." Garnet's voice was cool and calm. "I'm giving you two hours. Don't do anything dangerous. If you even get a funny feeling, leave." Stevonnie nodded vigorously.

They breathed together, and after several moments, Stevonnie found themselves floating above the platform where their body was seated, breathing. "Whoa! This is cool!" they exclaimed. "Oh! We only have two hours!" they realized and raced upward.

Stevonnie soared to the red planet after a moment of confusion. Their side of the Earth was still facing the sun, so it took a moment to orient. Once they knew their bearings, they were off. It seemed as though the trip went much more quickly than before. New amazement filled them when they found themselves above the volcano, the largest in the Solar system. Today, clouds put it in sharp relief as it towered.

They descended toward the sounds of voices, and entered the room that held Golden Topaz. She was on her side, curled into a very sleepy position on her table. A champaign color warmed the room from her gem. And just between the basalt table and the one she was on, was the clock, still inactive. "Who would do such a thing?" Stevonnie said to herself.

The dust was everywhere as they explored. They went to the dorms, to the library, the classroom, to the machinery spaces, and the strange warehouse. They lingered in the main hall that housed the titans, admiring them. Something caught their attention near the top of the dome.

They rose up to the top easily, and inspected it with great focus. The material seemed not to be opaque, but clear, to many centimeters, until the far surface met what looked like the volcanic basalt outside. "It _was_ a skylight! The volcano covered it-" they said, with awe - Olympus Mons was hundreds of kilometers away.

"This _is_ the dome from her memory!" they elated. The thrill left as a larger question loomed. That dome was a six-pointed star. The structure they were in now was a five-pointed one, with Topaz's room facing out over the space where the last point would be. They descended and entered the room, and looked out the window. The ravine, and then canyon were where they always were.

Stevonnie swooped quickly out through the window to look back at the overhang and the cleft. They rose into the Martian sky as rapidly as they could for a better view. The little ravine that ran down across the view out the window simply terminated at the edge of a cliff, but there was no evidence of erosion beyond that point. It took a moment to spot in the debris at the bottom of the cliff. Here were boulders toppled into the canyon in excess of anything occurring naturally. It was not the boulders that were of interest, but what they covered. Stevonnie descended to look more closely.

Buried in the dust and sand and rubble, a series of jagged structures projected upward from the alluvial fill like huge teeth. Each one was sheer and sharp on the edges, but flat on either side, with curvature that easily denoted what had to be fragments of a dome. Interspersed with the tooth-like rubble were rounded sections with the jagged edges forced downward into the soil. The whole thing looked like what would happen to an old incandescent light bulb if it were crushed into a red clay.

The rubble slowly stopped looking so random. Stevonnie was now standing among the carnage, a labyrinth of boulders and crushed dome segments, but there was an order to it. Atop each section was where the largest boulders were; they knew falling boulders would not come to rest this way; these had been placed. Someone had toppled the dome into the canyon, then concealed its location with the boulders so that only very astute and near observers would notice.

Stevonnie felt their hearts beating rapidly. Cold sweat began forming on them, but they pressed onward. Further into maze of ruin, were what looked like the contents of the structure. There was a shattered table, with its legs up-ended or scattered around. There was a chair in the same condition. Other furniture and belongings, now ruined, were strewn here.

The next corner spelled the end of the tour in the canyon. Small glass objects were strewn everywhere. At first it looked like they were all broken beyond identification. It made sense. Fluorite was an artisan of the material, so there would of course be glass everywhere. But the chaos had an order, and the objects began to reveal themselves in the pure silence and stillness.

After a moment of looking at them, they realized what the objects were. Most were flat-bottomed crescents with straight sides as rims running at the edge, only as large as tea saucers. There were even a few intact. All of them were now empty, and there was no evidence of whatever may have been inside them. These were Fluorite's petri dishes. There were hundreds of them.

They took a step back, ill-at-ease. It was now that the flat-sided aquarium entered the edge of their vision. Stevonnie took several cautious steps toward it, as though it would leap up and attack, but of course it didn't. Scattered near it were what they assumed to be coral skeletons, similar to staghorn, now crushed. In the base was what seemed to be a layer of baked clay, smashed basically flat. But throughout the mass, there seemed to be tiny burrows, their occupants long gone.

These had held Fluorite's plants and animals. They were full of living things when the dome was undermined and cast down. Stevonnie knew they didn't fully understand the implications of the scene, but their fear was now palpable, and they rose into the air above the wreckage. It was a tremendous relief to leave the destruction behind, even if the image of the aquarium lingered.

During their ascent, a spot high above began to take shape in the cliffs leading up to Golden Topaz's room. As they approached, the shadows began to describe a cavern. Soon Stevonnie was looking into a carved passageway similar to the ones in the shrine proper. The collapse had been caused in such a way that when the passage was severed, it was undercut, and invisible from above.

Stevonnie followed it as it led roughly inward from where the lost dome had once been, and found herself in the main hangar. There was little of note here, just a few objects they didn't understand, but certainly no vehicles.

There were several passages leading off, and they followed each one as far as they could. The one to the right was collapsed, and phasing and cheating through the debris revealed that the passage had fallen, leaving a cut-off hangar with nothing in it but crates and lift trucks. The next one to the left was the one that had caved in. The next one was under the classroom, and was filled with more strange metallic bottles. The last two were in the same condition. Each one had an elevator leading upward to the space above, but it was unclear if they worked.

Stevonnie felt the urgency of their time limit pressing, even without a timepiece. They reluctantly made their way back to Topaz, who was still asleep. Voices, speaking tersely filled her dreams, though what conversation they were having was uncertain. "This part is cool," Stevonnie said aloud.

Stevonnie joined Topaz in her dream for the first time, in the same familiar way Steven had been. They were among the clouds again. Almost instantly the voices hushed, and the clouds paused. A chorus of voices, softly and distantly gasped "Oh!" and shimmering light filled the cloud. A golden tendril of cloud tentatively reached out to them.

They floated at ease as the mists first wafted by the Rose Quartz Gem, and paused there. Then a new energy animated the cloud as it coiled around them, gently lifting their chin, turning their head, lifting their hand. Stevonnie giggled, knowing Topaz had only a little time to wait before she was ready to rejoin the world of wakefulness.

Their laugh drew more light from the clouds, less defined, and pink clouds joined the golden ones. It seemed only proper to introduce themselves. "Hi! I'm Stevonnie, er, a friend of Steven." Golden clouds enveloped them as the pink ones timidly wafted by their cheek. "I can't wait to meet you awake," said Stevonnie, hoping some part of Topaz understood.

The cloud tendrils tickled by the soles of Stevonnie's feet, making them laugh again, then paused for just a moment in front of them. It hung there as if in thought, then touched their forehead, and a deep restfulness permeated through them. It felt as though they were floating backward, away from the light of Topaz. The warmth of the clouds was irresistible, and the last few things Stevonnie was aware of was of distant giggles while the lights and clouds traced in spirals and helixes together.

"Okay, time's up." Stevonnie snapped upright and cast Steven onto the warp pad and Connie into Garnet's arms. Garnet had her concerned expression on. Steven righted himself and stood up. Connie was set down gently on the edge of the pad.

"What went on up there?" Garnet asked with her usual gravity. "Oh! Oh! It was the clouds again, only there were all these lights, and it was like she knew we were there!" said Steven, unable to contain himself. "Um, I only saw two lights, Steven. But- wow," said Connie, still in awe, standing.

Garnet's expression only deepened as Pearl materialized on the warp pad. "You were moaning and shivering. What else?" she pressed. Steven looked at Connie, who blushed. "I think Pearl was right. There was a residence thing, her house-" Started Steven. "Someone dumped it off a cliff!" snapped Connie, furious. "There was this aquarium, and it was smashed, and all the creatures were gone," they explained in chorus. "Then they buried it under a bunch of rocks!" they said, tears welling up.

Steven grappled Pearl in a fierce hug, and she hugged him back. Garnet put an arm around Connie, who remembered something. "We found the way in!" Pearl jumped up. "Could you find it again?" she asked. Connie nodded. "It's where they broke the house off and dropped it, in the side of a cliff. It's not easy to see from above, but it's also not hard to find once you know it's there."

"Alright. Let's refresh ourselves. You two look like you could use a rest." Garnet waited until everyone had jumped onto the pad before activating it. They arrived in the house, and were greeted by Greg, wearing green spandex from head to toe, with hints of silvery mylar poking out of the collars. Everyone but Pearl stopped where they were, and processed the picture for a moment.

"Er, this is Pearl's idea. Actually, it wears okay, I guess. Steven! What do you think?" he asked. "It's a spacesuit!? Yeah!" Steven raced up to his Dad and crashed a hug into him. "Hey, help me ease outta this thing, I don't wanna wreck it," said Greg. Pearl and Steven helped Greg get the spandex and mylar undone. He looked much less glamorous in his Bermuda shorts and tanktop.

Steven and Connie related their adventures as they feasted on hot dogs and chips. Pearl took notes and Amethyst and Garnet listened intently as Greg kept turning the dogs on the grill. "I don't mind sayin' that sounds kinda scary." Greg had his 'Dad' face on, concerned that perhaps his son was taking on more than he could handle.

"It was fine. We overreacted, that's all. There was nothing there that could hurt us." Connie blushed. "We did overreact." Greg nodded. "Hey, I've had my own share of unexpected shocks. It's gonna happen."

Garnet looked at Steven. "You said Topaz put you in a sleep?" Steven nodded. "I'm sure it was her." Connie finished a sip of juice. "She has a very gentle touch." Pearl shook her head.

"I don't think you're right. Maybe it was part of a dream, and you were already falling asleep." Pearl began assessing aloud. "To recognize you, then check you over, and then be able to dismiss you into your own, uh, sleep, sounds like the kind of high magic that was lost well before the Gem War here on Earth."

"Or, she can." Garnet didn't look pleased. "Topaz would never hurt me, or Connie." Steven put on his serious face, and hoped it had the effect he wanted. She nodded to him. "I trust your judgment. But be aware, if she really can dismiss you from such a deep sleep, then this Golden Topaz is someone we don't want to underestimate."

They finished their meal, and Greg and Steven drove Connie home. That night, Steven slept, in his own dreams and rested, confident Topaz was also resting, safe, and content with the knowledge that the clock was gone forever. He didn't wander to Mars, or inhabit a watermelon-person, or invade the dreams of a Beach City citizen.

The next day Connie called early, and arranged a visit as early as Greg and Steven could muster. Once they had collected her and arranged the day with the approval of Dr. Maheswaran, they made for the temple. Once there, a quick search for Garnet found her waiting for the dryer to finish.

"Go on then. But like I said, be careful. And this has to be the last one. Remember to ask your questions if she's awake." Connie and Steven promised, and fused, forming Stevonnie again. They sat down, and again did their breathing exercise. It took a little longer to enter the astral state, but once there, it was utterly effortless to find Mars.

Rather than guessing, they listened, and instantly found a tone they followed in. It was a pleasing tone, like a glass harp, and in what seemed like moments they had arrived at the shrine. Stevonnie found the overhang, and noticed the glow there. As they approached, they saw through the tinted window that Topaz was sitting up on her table, and watching them with a serene smile.


	4. Chapter 4: Learning

Chapter Four: Learning

Stevonnie pushed boldly through the window, knowing her incorporeal form would pass through it as though it wasn't there. Golden Topaz smiled at her, and she tried to speak. "iennovetS, olleH." Her smile vanished. "Ugh," she said. Stevonnie realized 'ugh' was 'ugh' forward or backwards. They remembered how out-of-sorts Amethyst had been when she was cracked.

Topaz lay back, and closed her eyes. Instantly, her astral form joined Stevonnie, and sighed in relief. "We're too broken to speak to you properly that way. Very rude. We're sorry, but it takes so much concentration." Topaz looked them over. "You must be Stevonnie. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, and curtsied. Stevonnie was taken aback. They had introduced themselves to her the previous day, but while she was in the depths of her injury-induced coma or hibernation.

"Wow. Er, thank you." Topaz nodded, and looked them over again with puzzlement. "You're a friend of Steven," she said, "but who else have you brought with you?" Stevonnie nodded. "I brought Connie, too." Topaz cocked her head and blinked. "A Connie? Hello," she said aloud, then sighed. "We're old. Obsolete."

Stevonnie straightened. "You are not! You've already taught me more about Mars than anything I've read!" they protested. Topaz continued to look confused. "What is 'Mars'? This planet? Someone gave p17-4 a name?" Stevonnie nodded. "Yeah. Named after the Roman God of war."

"We see." Topaz turned and glided over nearer to the window and looked out. Stevonnie noticed a faint crackle of static electricity, very much like the barrier that kept Topaz from knocking the clock off of the stand. It grew more evident as she got closer to the glass.

She bent and looked out the window, then knelt down and looked again. "Stevonnie, do you know what part of the day it is?" she asked. Stevonnie looked out the window. The stream bed and the canyons were there, but no part of the sky was visible. Stevonnie lay down beside where Topaz was, and looked again. The sky was inaccessible. "Uh. It's day outside." Stevonnie stood back up. "They even took away the sky!?" they asked, horrified.

"Part of our punishment." Topaz stood and moved away from the window. "We can't leave this space. The barriers are very strong. We can't leave, even astrally-" She stopped and her gem went clear. Topaz stepped back from Stevonnie. "How do _you_ get through the barrier?" Topaz went rigid with apprehension. "Is this a trick? Are you a new warden type quartz?"

"No! No, no! Barriers don't effect me. I was dreaming and heard you- Why would the warden ruin that clock?" Stevonnie stopped. "Wait- how did I hear you if you're sealed in?" they shot back defensively. Topaz loosened a little. "Even if a jar is sealed, sounds can still escape." Stevonnie took a breath. "So that's why you haven't left your bed?" Topaz looked at her own inert form on the table. "We're broken. It would be unwise for us to move. But you're right; moving would be pointless. The door is keyed for the gem who let me live, and put us here."

Stevonnie looked around at the room. This was it; the entirety of Golden Topaz's space for ages of humanity. Possibly longer. "That's it. I'm getting you out. Or something. What controls the door? What controls the barriers?" Topaz just stared for a moment. "You don't know anything about us. You know we're a criminal. You shouldn't. We might still be dangerous!"

" _Are_ you dangerous?" Stevonnie asked. "We can say We're not, but how can you tell?" she replied. Stevonnie took a breath. "I'm a pretty good judge of character. Besides, I've been told that if I want to be trusted, I have to do it first, and I want you to trust me."

Topaz looked defenseless against their logic. Moreover, she looked like someone who was hoping what they had been told was true, but was expecting some obscene, perverse farce to be played on her based on that hope. Then she blinked and committed herself to their questions. "We're not dangerous, just sad and lonely."

"The barrier controls will be somewhere we can't reach, outside the perimeter. We have a guess as to where it might be. The door won't open without primary power, and probably a password or bypass." Stevonnie shifted. This was getting technical, and they were unsure of themselves.

"How hard is it to start the main power? Let's do that first." Topaz frowned. "Follow us." Together, they floated through the door into the hall of titans and across to the passageway that led to the amphitheater. Topaz then seemed to pass into the wall. Stevonnie followed reluctantly, and found themselves in an elevator shaft. They followed the dim illumination Topaz provided to the bottom.

They emerged into the main hangar. Stevonnie looked around. There was nothing useful here, just some of the metallic bottles. Topaz moved toward the center pile that seemed to hold the shrine up. "This is as close as we can get." Topaz gestured to the pillar. Fine pathways, raised reliefs, and arrangements of small faceted mosaics encompassed nearly all of the visible bottom portion of the footer. "Oh!" they exclaimed with sudden comprehension.

They had been past this object dozens of times and never observed the nature of it. "Here," said Topaz, motioning to come to her, then pointed at the pillar. "We'll give you the ability to touch. Press that one, then that one." Stevonnie waited as Topaz put one fingertip on Stevonnie's gem. Again the confidence surged through them. Topaz flickered uncertainly for a moment. "Do it," she urged.

Stevonnie moved toward the pillar. There was the briefest of tingles, then nothing. They touched the controls as guided by Topaz, and a faint but deep hum began to resonate inside the structure. "Uh, what kind of power does this use? Does it use up fuel?" they asked.

"Oh, it's just a basic Inertial Spatial Entanglement/Ley Line Orbital Transducer. As long as the planet is advancing through space and history, and the unit is on, we'll have energy. It's not as fancy as anything you've probably seen, but it did the job for us back in the day." Stevonnie nodded without understanding any part of what Topaz had told her. "What do I do next?"

Topaz motioned for them to follow again, and they went back the way they had come, until they stopped in her room again. "They wouldn't have placed the barrier units anywhere we could get to them or see, but the fields are always strongest near here." Stevonnie moved through the window and began looking around. There was dust, gravel, but no machinery.

"What does one look like?" they asked. "It would be a rectangle only as large as a Peridot's tool kit, with a series of vanes on part, and a door on the end. There should be hinges and a retaining pin on a tension spring. If you pull the pin, the door should pop open as the passive reactor coil pops out a little. Gently, gently- take the coil out. The field will fail without power." Stevonnie cast a sidelong glance at Topaz.

"Uh. What happens if I'm not 'gentle' with the coil?" Topaz threw her hands up defensively. "Then your effort here will have been for nothing. They explode if broken, and we will be gone." Stevonnie blinked once, then continued their search. "They explode. Good to know."

After a little bit, and realizing that their time was running short, Stevonnie returned to the room. "I haven't found anything. Are you sure it's near here?" Topaz shrugged. "This is where the fields are strongest. The units may be disguised or buried. Or something we've not thought of." Stevonnie passed through the window again and began a new search.

"Wait. You said there are two barrier things?" Topaz nodded. "One is tuned to the resonance of Gems in general, and stops everyone. The other is one you've seen, like the clock. It's tuned a little more narrowly to our resonance." Stevonnie made a note and kept searching. It was still sort of dark in the cleft, so they focused and illuminated from their own gem.

There was nothing significant about the gravel until they got near the northern edge of the grotto. Part of the desert floor seemed to be excavated in the corner where the Shrine met the basalt. Here, the basalt seemed to be covered in a strange, green particulate. As Stevonnie backed away to get a broader view, they realized that this section of wall was colored incorrectly, at right angles, forming a square.

They pushed, and the wall slid in and then aside. Bits of metal and green gem circuitry tumbled out onto the ground. After sorting through the rubbish, they found vanes that told them that this was indeed one of the barrier devices. "This one's exploded already!" they called. There was nothing else inside the tiny chamber with it, nor room for anything. "Oh? We thought they would be far more potent-"

On a hunch, Stevonnie went to the other end, and found a similar divot. Here, too, the stone slid away, revealing exactly the device Topaz had described, intact and humming away. Stevonnie had to sort out which end had the hatch, and then lift that out since the cramped quarters were too small to swing the door in.

Once it came to pulling the retaining pin, it became clear how much discipline was required to get it to move at all from the astral plane. It was four tries before they got the pin out, and the hatch popped open just like Topaz said it would. Stevonnie yelped as it did. Once they discovered that the coil, a green arrangement had not gone off, they carefully set it by itself in the secret alcove it had come from.

For a long moment there was silence. Stevonnie returned to the window, and entered the room. Topaz stood by her resting body, looking out the window. Her eyes were unfocused, her shoulders were tight, and her arms were crossed.

"Golden Topaz?" Stevonnie said quietly. "It's off." Topaz didn't move. "Didn't it work?" Topaz snapped back to reality. "Oh! Oh! Yes. Yes. All that noise is gone. We can hear again." Stevonnie waited. Another minute went by. "Topaz?"

"The quiet. It's been so long, we don't even understand 'quiet' anymore." Stevonnie nodded. What was the barrier doing that could be aware of it? "You should be able to come outside now," they offered. Topaz looked at Stevonnie, then at the window, at Stevonnie, then at the window again. She closed her eyes, and reached out her shaking hands to touch the window. When her hands passed into it and nothing happened, she opened her eyes.

She looked at her hands as though some error could be observed there, and then at the window. She crossed her arms again, bunched her shoulders, and took a breath. Then she took a bold, deliberate step forward, and then another, and more, until she'd passed through the many centimeters of clear silicate.

Stevonnie moved beside her, step by step. As they reached the outside, they couldn't help themselves, and happiness for their friend, who had only just now taken her first steps outside of her shrine prison in unknown years, thrilled through every aspect of their character.

Topaz gathered more of her courage and continued onward, with her arms still folded and hunched, head and eyes down until the dark of the crag surrendered to the Martian sunlight, now drawing long shadows on the ground from the west. Stevonnie could no longer contain themselves.

"Look!" they said, pointing back up the slope to the sun. Topaz looked up. Her arms loosened, her back straightened, and her eyes found the sky. Her eyes were wide and her jaw hung slack as she took in the horizon, the sky overhead, and the depths of space behind her, and back to the horizon.

"We can hear the local star, Stevonnie! She's learned the melody of her song." Topaz held her hands palms out to the sun. Stevonnie noticed that Topaz's left hand seemed crooked somehow. "What?" asked Stevonnie. Topaz put her hands down. "Large rotating bodies of mass have a tendency to emit waves of force. To us, they are sounds, a feeling, and if the body becomes stable, it becomes music," she said. "Nature's music!" she said.

Stevonnie began to understand. Topaz raised her hands towards the sun again, and closed her eyes, letting her joy flow through her. "Oh- OH!" Topaz jumped up and down, and held her hands against her chest in shock. "Coherent waves! Oh!" Stevonnie jumped with Topaz in excitement, even if they didn't know what she was talking about.

"What?! What is it?!" they asked. Topaz glowed. "There are _people_ in this system! Intelligent people! Just one planet in!" She settled herself and focused, and distantly the sounds of static began to emit from her gem, until a late night comedy laugh track could be faintly heard over the noise. Topaz giggled. "They sound like fun." The dunes and canyons shone for a great distance even in the waning sun. Stevonnie laughed in astonishment while Topaz tuned through station after station. Then they had a realization.

"That's Earth! That's where I am right now!" Topaz stopped tuning and the sound of the radio ceased. "Wh- What?" Stevonnie grinned broadly. "That's how I can come and go so easily! I'm right over there!" They both paused for a moment, and burst into belly laughs. "That's why I'm so sure I can rescue you from here."

After they settled down, Stevonnie took a moment to be serious. "I'm going to bring my friends, and I'll heal you, and we can go there, and you can see it, and have all the sky you could ever want." Topaz was watching the sun set. "And we will be honored to have you as our guest here on Mars as our savior." The sun moved behind the crag where the shrine was buried, and Topaz rose into the air and over the basalt encasement to continue watching. Stevonnie followed, and they both landed on a peak of solid basalt and loose rubble.

From here they watched the fiery display of blues and magentas coloring the clouds around the nearest edges of Olympus Mons, azure feathers against the black rock. "We know those colors." She sat down on a rock, and sighed. "We knew their names once."

Stevonnie suddenly remembered she had a task to complete, and a short time to do it in. They cleared their throat. "Er, Topaz, I, that is to say-"

"Treason," replied Topaz. Stevonnie stopped. "Eh, what?" Topaz looked up at them and smiled. "Why we're here, our crime, officially. That's one of the things you've been sent to ask, isn't it?" Stevonnie nodded guiltily.

Topaz leaned toward her reassuringly. "We may not be worldly, but we are intelligent. We know the ones you report to want to know who we are before mounting any kind of rescue. Though it should be on record." She looked down at the stone hiding her home. "A copy of the record is here in any case, in the library. We grant access to you and your fellow Gems when you come. Before you come to us, see the records, and satisfy any questions we don't answer."

Stevonnie wanted to know more. "What were the charges?" The her light diminished, leaving the countryside in near total darkness. "Disobeying lawful orders, aiding known criminals, and engaging in illegal combat against appointed authority. Worst of all, Usurpation of the Natural Order of Gem Society; we accepted appointment to Counselor and Healer General by the Gems of P17-4. Er, Mars."

Stevonnie sat beside her. "I don't understand. Why did you change sides?" Topaz hung her head. "Love," she said simply.

"Can't you tell me more?" Topaz stood and looked at the blaze of color. "We could, but it would be better if you went to the library and observed the recorded data. Just understand that it is history as written by the victors, and the victors are always the heroes of the story." Stevonnie sighed.

"You won't tell me?"

"It hurts too much." She looked up at the sky. "We can hear the music of the universe; The star of this system; Your lovely Earth; New beacon stars' rhythms. But the one song we wanted to hear has been smothered." Topaz turned suddenly, and without thinking, telekinetically seized a stone from the rubble. Stevonnie needlessly moved out of the way as the stone lifted away from the ground in Topaz's angry grip, the slab bobbing in the air, moved by invisible forces.

"Murderers!" snarled Topaz as she hurled the rock out into the darkness, leaving a trail of dust arcing out into the distance. Stevonnie wrapped an arm around Topaz, who was shaking with rage. "I'll take you home, away from this awful place, and you can forget-"

"You-!" Topaz stopped herself. Distantly, the stone fell to the ground, shattering itself and whatever it had landed on, reverberating through the canyons. "You only see the present. A desolate rock, covered in dust, with no hope of ever truly living." She gently set Stevonnie's arm aside and turned to face them. "But to us, it was alive. This was our home, our dream."

"We were going to live here, grow and raise the colony gems, nurture the life that was already growing here, see our people learn and grow, be together-" Tears rolled down her nose. Dust kicked up and wind rang in the narrow places, until in the distance a dust-devil formed, carrying sand into the sky and dropping it in a silica rain in the night where they stood. "Look what they've done to our dream."

Topaz looked up into the sky. "But we've won! Do you hear? We've survived your worst, and we will reclaim what's ours!" she roared, then slid down to her knees beside the rock she'd sat on earlier, and embraced it. "We remember your song, even if you can't sing anymore." The orange and yellow gem wept openly against the remains of her beloved world, casting molten tears noiselessly onto the gravel where their astral forms spattered and wafted away.

Stevonnie wiped away their own sympathetic tears as they knelt down next to Topaz. "Oh, no. Look what we've done," said Topaz quietly. "We've allowed our own adversity impair our understanding for others. Here-" she said, pushing herself shakily up and wiping away the tears from Stevonnie. "Over time, we have become undisciplined." She took a cleansing breath, and helped Stevonnie up. "Look at us all- we won't accomplish anything like this. Let's-"

Topaz looked off to the north and squinted into the distance. "Are you alone?" she asked. Stevonnie looked into the distance, seeing only the rocks and canyons. "Yes. What is it?" Topaz shook her head. "We've been listening to the barriers for so long, the sudden quiet is misleading. It's nothing. Let's go. The work remains, even if we can't get up to do it." They began gliding down the slope to the grotto and exposed window, and went inside.

"Let's have a look at this door." Topaz went over to the door, and began examining it. Stevonnie joined her, and started looking at it from the other side. It was similar to the one at the Temple. There were no controls, only the gem that was inset, a deep purple cushion cut, but nothing else.

"I don't see anything." Stevonnie checked the edges of the door, but the only thing was the gem and the edges that met the wall. They made room as Topaz phased through the door. There they stood and looked at the features of the door, but there was nothing to work with. "Should we try that control thing in the hangar?" asked Stevonnie.

"Yes! Good idea!" They made their way to the elevator again. "Um-why don't we just go through the floor? We've been using the elevator and hallways," asked Stevonnie. Topaz stopped where she was and turned to them. "There are mineral formations that can trap your astral form." Topaz's brow furrowed as Stevonnie blushed. "We see. Please be more careful in the future," said Topaz disapprovingly, and sounding more than a little like Pearl.

They arrived at the column, which was humming along quietly. Topaz stopped shy of the controls, and turned to Stevonnie, preparing to say something. She stopped herself. "We'll do it. We're not used to having access to things-" she said, and began to operate the controls. "Let's run some diagnostics first."

Again, Topaz used her right hand almost exclusively, while her left seemed inert.

Gem characters in several holographic displays began to run by, row after row. "What do I do?" asked Stevonnie. Topaz smiled. "You could ask some more of your questions." They nodded.

"Well, um. Peridot says that a Topaz, even a Golden Topaz- eh- is usually a 'servant', um," they started. Topaz didn't stop reading or working. "Your Peridot is correct. Most Topaz are retained as assistants, holding tools, providing illumination, storing implements, listening to troubles, providing relief for injuries, and defending gems who are otherwise unable to do so themselves. There were those who argued that we Topaz were tasked with too broad a range of expectations."

She turned around with her back straight and chin held high. "Those parties are mistaken. We are not only versatile, but sturdy and capable." She shuddered, and went back to the console. "We wish your Peridot was here. Peridots would have already finished this... machinery task." Topaz sighed heavily. "We don't know half of what's being presented here. A Peridot would know."

They all stood and watched the computer list all of the things it was doing and the results as it worked. "Topaz? What do you know about healing? Can you really teach me?" Topaz glowed as she had before at the thought of learning. "We were started on the homeworld's second moon with all of Gem-kind's knowledge of comfort and healing, and started our colony here, we increased that knowledge by no small amount." She looked down at her gem.

"If we can survive the journey, we'll teach you." She looked at Stevonnie, then moved away from the computer as it burbled to itself. "Here, pay attention," she said, gliding over to a clear space on the deck. Stevonnie followed her there. "Clear your mind. Summon your stillness."

They stood beside Topaz and focused, reciting the mantra. The earlier tension melted away and was replaced by calm. Things that were problems became questions whose answers were merely hidden. "Now, illuminate like you have been, when you were exploring," she said.

Stevonnie cast a glance at Topaz. "How did you know-" Topaz kept her eyes closed, her gem now emitting a cone of intense orange light onto the wall ahead. "We felt you in our dreams. Our ego isn't such that we would believe you were coming only to see us." Stevonnie nodded. "And your question about moving through the floor, and the fact that your Steven is, we think, a quartz. We would be quite surprised if you hadn't."

"Oh," they said. "Please focus. You can do this," urged Topaz. Stevonnie recovered their focus, and a pale pink spot of light appeared next to the circle of orange illumination. "Good! Now, make the edges focused." Stevonnie concentrated, and the little pink spot went from a pink point full of artifacts and fuzzy edges to a nearly perfect pink pentagon with crisp edges.

"Yes. Now, concentrate on an image, any image." They closed their eyes and searched their mind for an image, but the only one that kept forcing its way forward was of Topaz on her table, deeply asleep. "Now, concentrate, and look-" she said. Stevonnie looked up, and there in the projection, was the image. It was a little out of focus, but it was correct, without excessive distortion. It flickered as Stevonnie gasped at seeing it, but became steady again as their confidence grew.

Topaz frowned. "Ugh. Perhaps another image?" she said. Stevonnie searched up another image, this time of Topaz illuminating the Hall of Titans as she introduced Diorite. Topaz's bright orange blush was brighter than her gem, though it was hard to tell with her hand over it, obscuring the light in part to allow Stevonnie's projection to have its own space. "We're flattered, but perhaps there are other things you wish to show us?"

It took a bit of effort, and the image flickered again. It remained just a pink pentagon until finally Centipeedle formed on the wall. "Yes! Good, hmm." Topaz rummaged in a drawer on the column, and produced one of the pencils, and a sheet of foil. She carried them to a crate near the wall, where she set up and began taking notes, holding the sheet down with the back of her left hand and writing with the other. "Stevonnie, do you know how long this Gem has been like this?" she asked.

"Eh, about five-thousand years- er, 'Earth years,' if that's better," they answered. She made more notes, mumbling to herself. "Can you remember her gem in detail?" A memory of opening the bubble Centipleedle had been stored in, next to the bag of potato chips appeared. "And she's undamaged on all sides-" More notes. "And then there's this other gem you mentioned, a Jasper, is that correct?"

"Yeah," Stevonnie replied, a flurry of un-ordered feelings fluttering inside them. The image vanished. "Sshh, focus. Help us, in helping you, help them. The first part of any healing is understanding; understanding that there is an injury, and understanding what the injury is. You already recognized that there was an injury, so you are already quite talented. Just focus on your Jasper friend," soothed Topaz.

The mention of Jasper as a friend was startling to Stevonnie, and it was difficult to find a starting point in the memory. The memory began at the point where Jasper had first appeared on earth with her ship, but that wasn't going to be useful. _Friend_? They tried again, and this time managed to recall the point in the memory where Steven fused with Amethyst. Stevonnie simply allowed the memory to progress from there. A clatter almost disrupted their concentration.

There was the subsequent battle, the yo-yo weapon, and then the part when Jasper fused with the corrupted Gem. "We see." Stevonnie stopped the vision, to find Topaz on the floor struggling to pick up the foil and the scribe, which had fallen at some point. "Are you okay?" they asked as she got the objects collected and stood back up.

Topaz shuddered. "We're fine. So, one of your friends is an A- Ah-," she stuttered. "Amethyst? Yeah, she's awesome!" admitted Stevonnie. Topaz looked intensely at her short list of notes. "Take good care of your ah- eh- your friend. They bring mirth and jollity, but they are passionate, and very jealous." She took them by the shoulder. "Never take her for granted, and she will be loyal to whatever ends you go to."

"So that's corruption, as a contagion. Interesting," she said, her voice shaking. "Well, it's not a Geo-phage or Litho-phage. That _is_ good." Topaz shuddered and adjusted her sleeves and skirts, tidying herself. "What's a 'Geo-page'?"

"Geo-phage, or Litho-phage. A magical stone-eating illness. Very unpleasant," Topaz explained. "We defeated it, until we were- until- There weren't any cases again." She made some more notes on the foil. "We'd rather heal chips and cracks any day than try to sort out another phage."

Topaz shuddered again. "What's wrong?" asked Stevonnie. "Just remembering the Litho-phage. A crack is a much simpler thing to heal. In most cases, it's simply a matter of applying essential ley-energy and aligning molecules. Even for chips, even if a gem is nearly halved, they can usually be re-assembled, though those individuals often have a permanent imperfection."

Stevonnie lifted Topaz's left hand. "Like this?" they asked carefully. "We have not been healed yet," Topaz corrected. "We might be lucky enough to have a brilliant and talented student come to rescue us. Then we'll see," she smiled. "But sometimes, yes." Stevonnie looked closely at her cracked briolette, and the purple hemi-hexagon shard impaled into it.

Topaz allowed Stevonnie to touch her gem. "I don't understand what happened to you." Topaz allowed Stevonnie to touch her gem's astral form. Topaz waited patiently as they looked closely. "Let's focus on this illness and on preparing the Shrine." Topaz stood still for them as she looked at the center column.

"What do you mean 'clock error, time-keeping out-of-phase, source unreachable'?" Stevonnie straightened and looked at the computer with Topaz, whose brow furrowed. "Star-chart mis-match? I just want to know how long I've been here-" She sighed heavily, and folded herself into her meditative position. "We're a healer, not a technician. Be sure to bring Peridot. Even if they're old, these machines still operate on basic gem principles. She will know how to use them." She closed her eyes.

"We would rather be treating injuries. Did you know the method for rejoining facets was developed here on -4, er, Mars?" she said. "We misread the age of this system, and arrived when loose material was still aggregating and on occasion would fall onto the larger bodies. There was one instance of a meteor falling where gems were working. Ironically, trying to put up a deflector. They brought us two Zirconia who had been struck by debris. One was chipped so badly she was almost unrecognizable." Stevonnie listened to her story raptly as she recalled.

"We wouldn't give up. For months we scrambled, searching every archive. We even connected to the home-world library. It wasn't until we stopped assuming that magic alone could solve our problem that a solution was found." Her tone sounded less like she was recounting an achievement, and more like an admission.

"Crystals abide by physical laws as well. Learning the finer points of crystal formation in conjunction with energy re-alignment was key to healing poor Zirconia. She went on to become the lead fabricator on Mars. Brilliant Gem. We even eventually devised a method to re-grow missing material." Topaz tone was one of instruction. "Don't fall into the trap of just assuming your essences will heal or mend everything perfectly."

Stevonnie couldn't help herself. There was one question still burning them, and Topaz seemed as likely as any to possess the answer. "Can- can gems who have been shattered be healed?" they asked. Topaz opened her eyes and looked them over, and took Stevonnie's hand in both of hers.

"You've suffered a tragedy, haven't you. You seem like a new gem, if you don't mind my saying so. Is that right?" she asked. Stevonnie only nodded. Topaz gripped their hand firmly. "We don't have the answer you want, we're sorry. But together, we can move forward. Just understand, we may need you, as much as you want our help."

Topaz sat back into her pose. "Shattering is a difficult thing to understand. Even gems educated in the life functions of gem-kind don't understand it, but we will tell you what we do know." She closed her eyes. Only the waver of Topaz's voice, and subtle movement in her left hand, told Stevonnie how close this was to her heart. They closed their eyes, picturing what she said, making mental notes.

"First, understand that some gems have come from gem shards. Keeping knowledge of where gem shards are, collecting them after- is most important. In our time, it was understood that most gems, in case they were shattered, wanted their shards used to start new gems, and so their wishes were honored. The new gems would be 'new', not possessing memories from their progenitors."

"Gem shards don't have a reasoning consciousness, wanting instead only to find their missing counterparts. We discovered that they were receptive to any, any other shard. They would even fuse together, but because the edges didn't match, they would join in whatever way they could, if they could." She turned to them and asserted with gravity, "Never, ever leave elements of healing in the reach of desperate shards."

"An unconsoled shard will try to form, so it can move and search for its mates. That's why shards have to be nurtured-" her voice cracked. Stevonnie opened their eyes. Topaz was staring into empty space, working her jaw. Her hand shuddered. "Topaz?"

Her head snapped around. "Ah!? Oh, cosmos. What was I talking about?" she asked, flustered. "Shards have to be loved?" they replied. Topaz recovered herself. "Shards- have to regularly consoled. Doing it once early on isn't enough. They still seek affection, and without the wholeness of the gem they came from and their conscious love-of-self, they become desperate, sometimes even destructive."

"It may feel foolish, like talking to open space, but in the temples and shrines across the Diamond Star Collective, it is a sacred duty, until they can be planted and grown into new gems. It was one of the proudest duties of Topaz across the galaxies." She'd regained her calm. Stevonnie stirred.

"There are no known ways to rejoin shards. We've thought about it for as long as we've been here. After what we allowed to happen- after she-" she touched her gem again. "Someday, perhaps there will be a way."

Stevonnie thought about poor Pink Diamond, and how the other Diamonds felt about what had happened, what had been done. "Will you tell us what it was that happened?" Asked Topaz gently. Stevonnie wasn't expecting Topaz to ask, but they realized they should have. 'Counselor and Healer General', it was even in the title. A strange, hurtful panic surged through them, and they stood without thinking.

"Easy, shh, we won't ask again. It's clearly still to soon for you," she consoled. "Come with us. We will go first." Topaz led them back to the room she was resting in. They stood beside her table, and she directed Stevonnie's attention upward, to a shadow against the overhead. As they looked, Topaz re-entered her physical form, and opened her eyes, and illuminated that space with her own roseate-champagne-colored rays.

Above them was a bubble, like any gem-made bubble they had seen. The bubble was purple, and only visible when it was illuminated, and one knew where to look. As Topaz focused on it, it descended to her, apparently abiding by her will.

Inside it were shards of a gem. Tiny, uneven bi-pyramidal hexagon shards floated, pink-and-purple, alongside two flat, triangular cuts of yellow and orange. At first Stevonnie shuddered, understanding that this was one of Topaz's friends, placed here by that cruel gem. She didn't understand the two little yellow chips. They weren't shard-like, but perfectly triangular, smaller, and polished on all sides. The others weren't polished but on a few sides, and they-

-they were pink and purple. Stevonnie's heart raced. "Oh!" They looked at the gem at the base of Topaz's throat. That piece, wedged into her cracked briolette, was the same shade, and had the same cleavage habits as the ones in the bubble. Stevonnie wanted to flee, they wanted to help, they wanted punish the gem who had done this.

Topaz's astral form rejoined them, and they wrapped her in a protective embrace, determined to somehow keep her safe from the torments she had already seen and endured. She accepted the embrace, and simply stood in Stevonnie's encompassing empathy.

Finally, she hugged them back, and dabbed away their tears. "You have a compassion rare in gem-kind." She turned to the bubble. Her mouth was upturned, but her eyes told the truth. "Our Fluorite." Topaz touched the part of Fluorite in her own gem. "She is still with us. It is her courage and memory that gave us the strength to persevere, her courage that saved us so long ago, and now serves as an example for us all to follow."

Stevonnie nodded. "So when you refer to yourself as 'we', it's not 'royal we', it's-" Topaz looked out the window, her hurt and courage set aside for tempered, ancient determination. "It's 'we', because we will always be together, until my shards join hers in a bubble or we are honored in memory by rekindling in a kindergarten. We will _never_ let her be forgotten."

Topaz led through the transparent material to the channel outside. She walked to the edge of the cliff, and looked down at the remains of her home. "You wanted to know why we were were imprisoned." She openly scowled down onto the rubble. "Our treason wasn't against the state. It was when our protection was turned into the state's weapon."

A voice that had until now remained silent, awakened. _"Weapon of the temple. Deceiver. Bringer of destruction,"_ it lied. Topaz flinched as it spoke. "All we wanted to do was end the life-form debate rebellions and restore love and joy. Instead, we-" her fists clenched and she faced away from Stevonnie in shame, "-we caused their destruction by trusting the judgment of the council, and believing in their mercies. By the time we understood what was happening to them and joined the fight against the council, it was too late." She turned to Stevonnie.

"All those gems we started together in the first kindergartens, the ones we taught and nurtured, the ones who came to us for council and healing and protection. They trusted us with their safety, and instead we delivered them straight into the hands of the very Gems who would- who-" The walls of the canyon below them both dimly bloomed briefly as motes of her rage and sadness plunged into the abyss and ether.

"The record will say 'Treason against the Diamond Star Collective', but in truth we were punished for failing our people by not understanding them." She gestured with her left hand to the wastes surrounding them. Stevonnie looked at the rubble below them, at the buried Shrine, at the places where wind had re-shaped ravines, the barren plains and rocky canyons. They tried to see it with the life Topaz had described, but it was difficult for them.

"This is the price of our defeat, Stevonnie." She sat on the ledge. Dust danced around them as a mild breeze stirred. She looked away from the chasm and up at the sky. "Do you love your earth?" she asked in seriousness. "Yes! We all do. We protect it all the time," they answered without a breath. Topaz nodded. "Will you still have us, after what you've learned?" she asked.

Stevonnie jumped up from where they were seated. "Yes! Yes! I want to show you the Earth! I want to see you happy again!" they exclaimed. "I want to learn! I don't know anything about Gem history-" Topaz stood, and corrected her garments. She directed a knowing, sidelong look at them. "You are a very clever gem." The radiance of sunlight that showered the canyons and clefts allowed them to proceed back to the little room with no trouble.

"We will go with you. Perhaps we will learn to love your Earth as much as you seem to." She stood over the figure on the table. "Thank you, Stevonnie. You've saved us many times over. Our gratitude is eternal."

"It's what I do." They leaned forward and peered into the floating purple globe. They squinted at the shards. "I don't understand the two little ones. What are they?" they asked. Topaz blinked. "Forgive us for observing, but are you a _very_ new Gem?" she asked. "Yes. Everyone points that out," they acknowledged.

"There are a few ways new gems are made. Shards are one. Chips are another. Look," Topaz said, indicating her own gem. "These facets are a bit large, aren't they?" she said. Four facets were somewhat disproportionately sized in comparison to the others. They were taken just above the girdle. They were the same shade, shape, size as the two now floating nearby.

"It's a great honor to be assigned to start a colony. Before gems board the ships, two chips are taken, and started in a kindergarten on the planet of origin. And once a colony is successful, two more are started in honor of the gems who originally colonized that world. That way, they aren't lost if something happens to them on the way."

"Wow," said Stevonnie in awe. Topaz shuffled her garments again. "It is perhaps time for you to return to your superiors? The nature of this visit feels somewhat more urgent than the last few. We think there are gems eagerly awaiting your return, yes?" she said. Stevonnie nodded.

"Yeah. I should really get back. Everyone's probably worried," they admitted. Topaz nodded. "Of course. Shall I return you to a wakeful state?" she asked. "Can you do that?" they asked in disbelief. "Our purpose was to heal gems- of course causing them to rest or return to wakefulness would be among our abilities- eccentric orbits, you are a new gem," she wondered. "With your permission?" she asked.

"I'll be back for you," they said. "And we will move into a happier future," said Topaz, meeting Stevonnie's eyes. They knew they had been drawn into a mental space of Topaz's as the little room vanished and golden and purple clouds began to envelope them in warmth and peace. "Do be so kind as to greet everyone on your return," she said, and gently placed a finger on their forehead.

Powerful sleep overtook them. For a moment, Jasper and Centipeedle played Super Cube Puzzle on the giant screen at the drive-in theater, until someone coughed, and they realized they were dreaming. They awoke, very rested and alert.

They rubbed their eyes, and found Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet watching them, or rather, a sheet that had been hung and pulled tight at the bottom, arranged in front of them. Pearl was still dabbing her cheeks. Garnet was as unreadable as ever. Amethyst pouted.

"So- what's the sheet for- it's not gonna stop anyone from falling," observed Stevonnie. Pearl answered. "Oh. Apparently, clearer-minded gems project their mental images when asleep." She cast a glare at Amethyst, but Amethyst was lost in her own thoughts. "I don't," added Garnet. "You sleep face-down with your fingers closed!" Pearl protested. It took a moment for Stevonnie to catch up.

"You were watching!?" they exclaimed. "No," corrected Garnet. They relaxed for a moment before Garnet added "We were watching and listening." Amethyst piped in, "-and recording." She held up Steven's phone. "What's 'jollity'?" Pearl answered. " 'Jollity' is derived from 'jolly'- it means you're fun." Amethyst nodded. "You got that right. Let's go get her!"


	5. Chapter 5: Meetings

Chapter Five: Meetings

The crew compartment of the ship was larger on the inside than out. The _Roaming Eye_ now sat in the driveway at the farm as Peridot prepped it for takeoff. Two food-themed bags sat in a nook between consoles. Greg parsed through the items he found inside.

"Okay- I get the flashlights and snacks- but I don't think we'll need these things," he said, indicating the toothpaste, floss, and toothbrush. "You never know- Bye, Connie," he said, giving her a hug. Dr. Maheswaran waved, although her expression was one of confusion.

"These hand communication devices are primitive, but should work. Steven, you said this facility was underground? Heavy material might make transmission a little difficult," explained Peridot who placed the walkie-talkies into the cheeseburger backpack.

"My genius has created a signal repeater, so even if Earth's primitive technology fails, my contribution won't!" she said triumphantly. She suddenly produced an old red toolbox with a CB antenna on one end, and what looked like the salvaged innards of a toaster connected to the other. "Thank you, Peridot. Sleeping bags and pillows?" Asked Greg, examining the contents of the Hot dog duffel bag. "Aww, Dad. I just wanna be prepared!" protested Steven.

Garnet watched as Pearl went down the checklist and read dials, observing outputs from subsystems. Amethyst stood out of the way, fidgeting. "I wish there was something I could do," she said, looking around at all the consoles. "I wish I knew how to read these thingies," she pouted. Garnet spoke without looking at her.

"We've had you running, chasing corrupted gems and errant artifacts and spells so much that we never took the time to teach you any technology or magic. I'm sorry. But-" Garnet turned to her, and smiled, "I understand this Gem we're rescuing is some kind of counselor, and that sounds like a teacher to me." Amethyst began to say something back, but Garnet's words had the kind of confidence in them that she'd learned long ago was unwise to question.

"Main systems are up, gravity looks good," announced Pearl. "Sensors and RCS is online," Peridot added. " _Roaming Eye_ is ready for takeoff!" they said together. Garnet assessed the situation, and Pearl turned to Greg and Steven. "Okay, all humans going on this mission, this is that moment when you should have gone before we left," she said. Greg saluted, tapped Steven on the shoulder, and they hopped down the ladder.

Once they returned, Pearl began helping them into the space-suits she'd built them. Garnet took this opportunity to address Lapiz Lazuli and Lion. "We'll make this as short as possible. In the meantime, you two are in charge of keeping Beach City safe." Lapiz nodded gravely. Lion yawned and rolled in the dust. "Try not to get too bored. We should be back shortly."

"Be careful out there. There's always been something funny about this star system," Lapiz warned. Garnet nodded, and disappeared into the ship. Shortly after, Pearl, Greg and Steven got on board, and the hatch shut after them.

"Oh, lion. I'm worried about Steven- I hope this Golden Topaz isn't dangerous." Lapiz considered for a moment preceding the ship and arriving first to see that her rescuer arrived safely, but she had been charged with the safety of his home, and to leave would be dereliction of duty. There was nothing to do now, but await his return, and in the meantime finish her book. A distant double-boom told her the ship had reached escape velocity.

Steven was glued to the window for the first part of the trip. Rising into the sky, seeing the shock cone form around the ship, seeing the blue of Earth's sky fall below them to become a glow around the azure and verdant globe as it shrunk away was as thrilling as anything he'd experienced, as new now as any time he'd done it before.

Soon, his own home became a distant blue ball, and after that only a point of light in the distance. Then something odd occurred to him. He was in deep space, farther from home than any astronaut had ever gone. He was on a rescue mission. He was wearing the space-suit Pearl had made. And he was bored.

"How long until we get there?" he asked, timidly. Pearl raised an eyebrow. "Did you really just ask 'are we there yet'?" Steven looked at the instruments Pearl was observing, and realized he understood none of it. "I'm worried, that's all," he said. "Here- let me show you how to read this," offered Pearl, who'd traveled with him before, and knew he needed to get his mind off of his main concern.

They spent the rest of the trip exploring the finer points of pitch, yaw, and roll, apogee, perigee, vector, and several other aspects of motion Pearl wasn't certain were all 'sticking'. As soon as Peridot announced they were at Mars L2, she let him go to the window.

There it was- Mars. Golden Topaz's P17-4. Orange and red and brown, cracked and dry, torn by wind. The big volcano, Olympus Mons was on the other side. This view, this real view in his physical presence, with his own eyes was in some way not as intimate as when he was visiting astrally.

The ship descended through the thin clouds, and skimmed over the great craters and endless plains, cruised through a huge canyon, and emerged over the edge to a vista of three large mountains. The sky was crystal clear, and Steven realized how fast they were moving when they passed between two of the northern mountains. How different motion was as himself, to when he was traveling astrally was a shock.

Ahead, from the horizon rose a basalt wall, the near edge of Olympus Mons. It filled the horizon, blocking any view of the peaks, a monument to the geological forces once at work on Mars. Clouds accumulated at the edge of the shield, translucent feathers surrounding a dark dome. At the near base of it a series of cracks and rubble fields resolved, and Steven knew this was where they would find his friend. "There!" he pointed.

"On final approach to the Golden Topaz Shrine, Mars. Eastern approach, looking for the entry," Peridot spoke into her tablet, recording her actions. "Okay, slow down and get higher, I gotta see," said Steven. Greg and Pearl assessed Steven as he directed the pilot. "Okay, hang here for a minute, lemme look around," he said, committed to this purpose. He wasn't fussing over his cartoon food people or how uncomfortable his suit was. "There, below that crack, where the two walls meet below that old rock formation," he instructed. Greg could feel his heart beat in his own suit as he watched his son.

He reached into the pouch on his suit and pulled out an over-sized guitar pick. On one side it said 'Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart'. On the other side was a photo of Rose Quartz. He smiled and put it back. The ship began to maneuver downward until it was below the rim of the canyon. On the face below the Shrine was the opening that led inward.

Peridot activated the proximity systems and lights, and navigated down the cavern towards the center. The ship hovered into the great chamber, and it was only now that Steven noticed how there were distinct platforms set up for ships to land on. Peridot was looking for a place to park when Steven pointed down the hallway across from them. "Go down there- it's not such a mess."

"Show us the way, buddy," Greg said as he took a place next to Steven. They proceeded down the passageway until they entered a somewhat smaller hangar. There was much less equipment lying about, and Peridot quickly chose a place to set down. "Helmets on, please," announced Pearl, helping with Steven, insuring the seal was sound, then helping Greg.

"One-tenth Earth's atmosphere, radiation is minimal, gravity is one-half, so no surprises." Peridot began to secure the ship after landing, and Pearl activated the permeable fields and lowered the ramp. Garnet stood next to the hatch. "Steven, I think you should be first. We'll be right behind you," she said, and waited for him to exit. At first Pearl felt like she was going to explode at the idea of allowing Steven to go first, but she remembered Garnet's superior senses and future vision.

Steven took a cautious step through the field onto the ramp. He felt the suit go slightly rigid inside the ceramic and aluminum plates Pearl had fashioned for it as he entered the nearly non-existant atmosphere of Mars. His dosimeter was almost silent, and the lights on his helmet and around his wrists all seemed to be working. He walked down the ramp onto the decking. "I'm good," Steven told them.

"What a creepy old place," groused Amethyst as she walked down to join Steven. The rest joined him, and he took it as his cue to lead the way. Garnet held gently by his shoulder. "I'll be in front- give me directions," she said. Steven began to point at the passageway they had just come from, thinking of the elevator there, when he spotted double doors on either side of the hangar. "Okay. This way," he said, pointing at the elevator closest to them. "I don't know if they work," he added. "I was astral."

The ancient door warped open as they reached it, and a large elevator, lit by a pink glow awaited. The operation was automatic, and the ride was so smooth Steven was unsure they had moved until the doors opened again. Before them were rows of seats, with a down grade leading to a stage and the up grade leading to a huge set of double doors. Above the doors was a seal, like a chess-board turned on its corner, each cell colored differently.

"It's the amphitheater!" Steven exclaimed, dashing to the center aisle many meters away. Amethyst was quick to join him, and stopped short, laughing out loud as she pointed at the back of a chair. "Now _that's_ funny!" she said. Steven looked at it for a moment and realized that it was the same graffiti he'd observed before. "What's it say?" he insisted. "Er- So this is the big classroom you were talking about?" said Amethyst, changing the subject. "Yeah."

Pearl, Peridot, and Garnet still stood by the elevator discussing the seal above the great doors. "I don't know any of them," said Pearl. "Yeah, none of them are ours," added Peridot, as she adjusted her grip on the gear she was carrying. Garnet collected her wits. "I think this place is very, very old. Let's go," she said. "Steven, take us to Topaz."

Steven approached the doors, and they seemed to melt away for him. "Whoah," he breathed. Greg joined him where he paused. "So elegant, and simple!" admired Peridot. Garnet went ahead of them again. They entered the passageway, and Pearl and Peridot immediately began admiring the walls. "I've never seen a native gem structure with original Gem art before," remarked Pearl, in awe. "There was nothing like this in Yellow Diamond's palace, or anywhere on homeworld." Peridot's voice was barely audible.

The passageway opened up into the central hall, and the lights on Greg and Steven's suits threw crazy shadows against the far walls. Instantly, the Gems produced their weapons, but relaxed when they realized the figures they were reacting to were glass, and inanimate. Peridot set one of the toolboxes she was carrying down in the center and flipped a switch on it, causing a single LED to come on.

"This one is Golden Topaz." Steven shone his light onto the the figure at the feet of Diorite. Pearl went to the base of the statue, and brushed the silt away from what almost looked like a plaque that had been scratched in a strange, orderly pattern. She read aloud; " 'Golden Topaz, Healer and Counselor General of P17-4, Keeper of Peace and Provider of Comfort'. Look at this script- someone really went to lengths to make this perfect," she observed.

Steven was already moving beyond the statues, but remembered to wait for Garnet. "Look at this wall- it's like somebody just kind of mashed these rooms together and shoved them into a hole they made," Amethyst said, pointing at the edges around the wall where Topaz's room waited. Steven approached the door that barred entrance to the room his friend was in.

He had been here many times before, and so he knew it was this door, but the door was some kind of magical, translucent ceramic, and a rosy-yellow glow illuminated it now. There was no mistaking what door she was behind. "Why aren't any other lights on in here?" asked Amethyst. "It's not a light, it's her," answered Steven, pushing on the door, waving at the gem inset. He kicked it.

"Let me," said Peridot, easing Steven aside. As Peridot worked, Greg turned suddenly, facing the way they had come. "What is it?" asked Garnet. Greg looked for another moment. "Aww, nothin'. It's this helmet," he said, deciding to adult, and stop being afraid of empty darkness. Peridot sighed. "I'm sorry- this door seems to be on hard lock-down. There are no access panels to it here. Only a remote computer would open this," she said. Steven was about to point at the elevator when Amethyst shoved Peridot aside.

"I got this- you just gotta bring the big guns!" she said, shifting into her muscular luchador form. She jumped to the door, and drew back her massive fist in an arc to wind up a massive blow, but before she was fully wrung, the purple gem glowed and the door melted away just like the big ones at the other end had done. "See?" she said, and turned to give Peridot a high five.

Steven didn't wait to see Peridot looking at Amethyst like she'd lost her mind, and rushed in past Garnet. Garnet chased him in, stage whispering "Steven!" as he went. Pearl chased them in followed by Greg, who was still getting accustomed to his suit.

Inside he found her lying on her table, propped up. She was turned to see them, and smiled broadly at Steven. She nodded to Garnet and then to Pearl and Greg. Her radiance was warm. She spoke to greet them, though it was clear in her broken state she had to make the effort to articulate in reverse. "Hello," said Golden Topaz. Steven launched a hug across her, and she received it with a laugh.

When he stood, she cocked her head, and tapped his helmet. "This? Oh- I have to wear it to keep out radiation and so I can breathe," he explained. She blinked, and her brow furrowed, but she nodded in acknowledgment. She tried to sit up, but Steven stopped her. "I'm here to heal you, and I can't if you get hurt more," he said with authority.

Her pupil-less eyes narrowed, but the grin she got broadened. She tapped her head with her fingers, and then tapped his helmet. "Minds?" she asked, and obediently lay down. "Oh! Okay, yeah, we can do that," he consented. Greg cleared his throat, "Steven-" he began. "Dad! I can do this!" returned Steven instantly. Greg put his hands up, then gave him a hug. "My boy," he said.

As Topaz lay back, her locks fell away from her throat, and revealed her gem and the state it was in. Pearl stifled a gasp with her hands over her mouth. Amethyst closed the door and moved past Greg to see what was going on, followed by Peridot, who began working with tools Steven didn't understand.

"Steven, how will you heal me with your helmet on?" Her voice was clear inside his head. "Peridot said she knows what to do. How can I hear you like this? Is it a gem power?" he asked. "Our minds have met many times. Any mind you have met astrally, you can reach afterward."

"Whoah," he said aloud. A low hiss announced Peridot's work was afoot as she worked in a corner near the window. "Steven, before you do any healing, there are things you must understand," she told him. "You must always have the informed consent of the Gem you are healing. This, you have, I promise."

"Okay. What else?" he asked. "I want you to know you've done everything right, learning, asking questions, summoning the courage to do right by everyone you know; but I'm hurt very, very badly. Even if I don't make it, you will have done right today."

"What!?" he exclaimed aloud. "What is it Steven?" asked Garnet, on edge. "She says that she's so hurt, even if I heal her-" he started. Pearl moved forward and touched his hand. "Steven, your Mother was a powerful healer, who understood the suffering of others, and there were gems even she couldn't help. Topaz just wants you to understand not everything works out the way we want," she said. Topaz nodded, without opening her eyes.

"How do I take the shard out?" he asked. Topaz shook her head and put her right hand up. "You can't! That shard has been there so long that she's as much a part of me as anything else. She is part of why I've fought so long. I can hear her, still. When I heal, I'll be an inclusion, an incomplete fusion, flawed, strange. But if you take her away, you'll be taking what keeps me together," she told him. "Please don't. Let me be whatever I become," she asked.

"Steven, the room is the same as the ship now," said Peridot, standing next to her contraption. "I'll go first," ordered Greg. With Pearl's help, he unfastened his helmet, and took it off. "Your ears are gonna pop, but it's good," he said, giving a thumbs up to Peridot. "Of course it is," she responded, and returned his signal.

Steven took his off, and took off a glove. "Are you ready?" he asked mentally. "I am. Are you? Healing others affects you as much as your patients," said Topaz. "Yeah. This might be a little weird," he told her, before licking his hand. "Here," he said, took a breath, and placed his hand on her gem.

He realized just how fractured it was as he touched it, and felt one part of it move independently of the others. Topaz opened her eyes in shock and gasped, arcing her back as the magic began to take effect. This was nothing like any of the healing he'd done in the past. He took her hand as she shook. Pearl bumped in beside him and put her hands under Topaz's head as Garnet held her feet. Amethyst hid behind Greg, and Peridot stared helplessly.

Steven could hear her gem creak and squeal under stress as the various faces mended together. He covered his ears as her matrices settled, and the tension eased from her. Her colors changed as well, blending into a strange series of stripes and swirls, and her garments lost their sharp definition. For a moment she just lay, with her eyes shut. Finally, she opened her eyes and sat up.

"Th- thank you," she said, finally, aloud, her voice weak. "Thank you all," she said, again, addressing Garnet and Pearl as well. She blushed hotly. "I've-" she looked down at her hands. "I've never _been_ healed before. I've always been the one to do the healing."

"Well, welcome back," offered Garnet. Topaz tried to bow, but only managed to weave dizzily, finally leaning against Steven for support, and hugging him in the process. "Steven, I think this form is unsustainable- I'm a mess!" she said. She hugged him tighter, causing him to grunt. "This is the first time I've heard my own intact voice in- ages, thank you. A thousand thank you-s, Steven. All of you!" Glowing droplets of her gratitude began to flow on her cheeks.

The clock, that had sat on the floor for over a month undisturbed righted itself under the influence of her magic, and the face reassembled. Peridot spotted the tiny clear cube, and crawled under the table. As the clock began to count, she stopped it, and found the other cube inside and extracted it. She emerged again with it in hand. "This must be the clock you were talking about, Steven," she said. The way both Topaz and Steven recoiled from it told her all she needed, and she quickly put it out of view.

"All of my meager resources are at your disposal, the library, the classroom, dormitory, the machine shop, the garden, and all of the abandoned things downstairs are yours to explore or use, though I can't vouch for their condition. All of the things you need to know about me are set on the back of the main console in the library," she said, still looking down at her hands.

She swayed again, and Steven felt it and caught her. "Are you okay? What did I do?" he worried. "You have _healed_ me, Steven. The rest is up to me. I must dismiss, and reform once I understand better what I am." Steven frowned. "What does that mean, 'dismiss'? It sounds scary," he said.

Pearl interjected. "It means she needs to 'poof', just for a little while- You can do that, when you want?" she asked, incredulous. "Lines-of-force, yes, yes. I see educating Gems on basic life functions has fallen to the wayside," she said with annoyance. To Steven, "I will be gone only a little while. Please don't move me, just wait for me. I won't be long." She smiled at him, and placed his hand over her briolette and focused.

Then, in a flash and cascade of embers, was gone, and he felt the light Gem drop into his hand. In a brief panic he looked between Garnet and Pearl, but just a moment after he felt her fall, her voice touched his mind. "Place me down on the table. Let me rest and reorder. Go, learn. If I return before you do, I will wait here."

"Oh! Oh! Yeah, I'll do that," he said to the Gem in his hands, and set her down. Pearl frowned at him. "Was she really talking to you just now- _poofed_?" she asked incredulously. Steven just nodded. "Dad, can you stay here while I go get something real quick?" Greg nodded. "Yeah, but what are you doing?" he asked. "I'll be right back," and started for the door before Garnet and Peridot cut him off.

"Don't- the door won't operate for you, and if it did, you'd get blown down the hallway! And put on your helmet!" Peridot warned. Pearl helped Greg and Steven get their helmets on as Peridot waited. "Okay," she said, selecting Amethyst from behind Greg, "You need to open this door, just a tiny, tiny little bit, got it?" Amethyst reached out, and did her best to open it a very small amount.

The resultant decompression yanked everyone toward the door but Topaz, and found Peridot wedged into the opening, bemoaning Amethyst's poor sense of proportion. "What part of 'tiny' did you not understand?" shouted a muffled voice from the other side of the door, as the hiss of pressurized gas diminished rapidly and her legs kicked in defiance.

"Sorry- but it did work," said Amethyst, opening the door the rest of the way, causing Peridot to fall out onto the floor. "Oof- Be more careful!" Peridot got up, dusted herself off, and stopped Steven before he dashed off. "Where is the machine shop? There might be a console there I can use to put up some life support."

"That way. But shouldn't you use the main computer downstairs?" he asked, indicating the southeast passageway and then the elevator. "I could- but I really wanna have a look at the machine shop," she giggled with anticipation. "If I can't do it from there, I'll go down to the big one."

"Amethyst, go with Peridot, I'll go with Steven, Pearl, stay with Greg. Let's go, I want to leave as soon as possible," ordered Garnet. "Which way?" Steven took her hand and began to lead, until she picked him up, tossed him onto her shoulder and started off. "Hey! Be careful down there!" shouted Greg into the darkness after them.

"We will, Dad, gosh," returned Steven distantly. Garnet's height gave long strides as she jogged down the passageway and it was only a short time before they arrived. As they went, Steven was careful to keep his light pointed the way it needed to be for her to see, but he used one of the lights in his sleeve to explore the frescoes and mosaics as they ran. He'd been through here many times, but his humble illumination from his gem was simply not as robust as the LED arrays Pearl had installed on his suit.

He'd seen the figures many times, and he was quickly learning them. The little figures painted and raised in glossy black seemed to be generically 'the people'. These were everywhere, depicting various kinds of labor. There were the rainbow ones, whose limbs were thrust into fires, or held glowing implements, or pushed up frames of great structures. Those had to be Bismuths.

Green ones of varying shades operated machinery or flew ships. There were silvery-white ones who seemed to sculpt fine objects of great detail. Heroic purple quartzes waged battle and offered protection to gems weaker than them. Standing with them were rosy-yellow gems, illuminating, healing, and comforting gems under the vigilant protection of the quartzes.

They quickly reached the end where another enormous door enclosed the dorms. A great figure, rosy and yellow like the Topazes along the walls stood watch down the passageway. The styles of this gem told Steven this was the diamond Topaz answered to. He wondered what she was called.

Garnet put him down so she could operate the door. He was about to ask her to wait so he could look at the diamond when the radio in his helmet crackled to life. "Steven, can you hear me?" asked Pearl. "Yes. Um, loud and clear," he answered as the great doors melted away at Garnet's command. "Say something to your Dad. He worries," she urged.

"Dad, I'm okay," he said, trying to disguise the amusement in his voice. "Okay, Stu-ball. Just, you know, check in now and then, okay?" Steven hurried, trying to 'lead' Garnet from behind. "Okay. I should be back pretty soon. I just gotta get something for Topaz." The nearest door melted silently open for them, and they found what Steven had been looking for.

The little pillows he'd seen seemed perfect, and he had little doubt that these were what 'poofed' Gems rested on while in the care of the healers of Mars when the Shrine was in operation. Topaz was his patient now, and if this was how it was done, then this was how he was going to do it.

Garnet frowned at him. "A pillow?" she asked. "Yes! It's what she used to do for all the Gems she took care of," he said, submitting to being carried. Garnet nodded as she realized how important this was not only to Steven, but possibly to Topaz as well. She picked him up, and paused, looking at the tiers of doors. There were easily two hundred distinct rooms in this node. Her imagination put a gem in each one, under the care of Topaz. She shook her head. Back to work.

It was a brief jog over the crunching dust back to the little room, and Garnet realized the layout was the same, but the room Golden Topaz had was much smaller than any in the dorm. Steven gingerly picked up the little tear-drop and placed it on the ancient pillow. Her gem was actually smaller than the other Gems. Amethyst's covered his palm; Golden Topaz barely a quarter. He'd never considered there might be a difference in sizes.

He stood back from the pillow expectantly. Then he remembered how long it had taken Pearl to return. "Oh- she told me she wanted you to look at some recordings, in the library. About her sentence and stuff. Things she wanted you to see before we decided to take her anywhere." Pearl and Garnet smiled.

"I think that was decided before we got here," said Garnet. "Greg, we'll be down there in the library, and you have the radios," said Pearl, following Garnet into the central hall. Suddenly a few clusters of lights came on, dimly and without preamble, but it was enough to navigate without drawing on their own artificial sources.

Peridot's tinny voice came through the tweeters in Greg and Steven's ears. "Ha! My genius triumphs again! Do you have light where you are?" she asked. "Yeah. Good job!" Greg responded. "Yes, thank you," answered Pearl. "Thank you. And now for my next trick- No! Don't touch that!" she shouted just as Amethyst's voice could be heard uttering the words "Ooh! what's this?!" followed by a series of clicks and a squeal from Amethyst. Peridot sighed. "Oh, boy. Hang on."

Greg made eye contact with Steven and they both shrugged. Several minutes passed in silence as Steven waited in anticipation of his friend's return. He drummed his gloved fingers, tapped his toes. "We could sing," offered his Dad. "What should we sing?" he asked. "Just a comet?" proposed Steven. At first he wasn't feeling it, but soon got caught up in the rhythm. After what turned into a six or seven song set, they took a break.

Steven sighed deeply, knowing this process might be hours. But what if she couldn't remember _how_ to re-form? What if she couldn't? What if her injury prevented her from doing so? Just then Garnet's voice came over the radio. Something about her voice was off, and it sounded like it did when she first saw the Gem Mutants. "We're coming back. We've seen what we need. If she hasn't re-formed, we'll bubble her on her pillow for safety, and bring her along that way," she said. "I think she'll be okay," said Pearl, though Steven wasn't certain what she meant by that.

"Er, we- we'll be just a minute," replied Peridot. "Hurry!" urged Garnet. "Why? What's happening?" demanded Steven. Just then, a thunderous wave of sound shocked through Steven and Greg's feet, and they rushed into the Hall of Titans. What they found made them both stop in shock.

The Ruby fusion stood before them, holding a great hammer in both hands, standing over Pearl as she tried to get back up. A clatter at the far end of the hall that led to the amphitheater directed their attention to the distant silhouette of Garnet regaining her feet after being hurled the distance by the blow that had drawn them here.

Ruby was raising the hammer again. Steven hurled himself over Pearl and bubbled them instantly. The hammer struck the sphere at an odd angle, and the force caused it to shoot off down the a hallway like a watermelon seed does when pinched. Steven and Pearl rebounded against the sides of the bubble as it shot the length of the passageway.

Steven saw Greg racing toward them, only to be backhanded away by the giant Ruby. Then Garnet charged in, delivering a double slam with her mighty gem gauntlets. The shock traveled to Steven and he felt it in his chest, but the Ruby shrugged it off, and the hammer's face lifted Garnet and cast her towards him in a tumble.

He released the bubble, and caught her tall figure by the shoulders and cradling her head, allowing the rest to sprawl. "The murderess, Rose Quartz. Or the Steven. It doesn't matter. You're mine!" said the furious fusion. Beyond her, Steven could see his Dad get back up, and stumble toward the door to Topaz's room.

"Th- that hammer. Magic," struggled Garnet. He looked. The hammer did glow a little, and the face scintillated different hues in the dim light. Giant Ruby's lip curled up on one edge, her eye bright and focused on him, as she tightened her grip on the long handle audibly. "Oh, this is perfect! Rose Quartz, and her Crystal Gems!"

Steven raised his bubble again, this time around himself and both Pearl and Garnet. Then he tried to roll past the angry fusion. "Oh, no!" she said, and trapped his bubble against the wall. "Rose Quartz, surrender now and maybe the diamonds will take it easy on you," she said.

"How do I know I can trust you!? You just tried to smash us all!" he retorted. Ruby cackled. "It was worth a try," she laughed. Then her eye raced in arcs as though reading some demented script. "We'll be famous, heroes, elevated to authority! Pearls! Followers!" She raised the hammer again.

"Garnet! We need Sardonyx!" he cried. The first blow deflected off of the sphere, but he could feel the force not only in his body, but deep inside, the way sand in chalk squeals on slate, only not in his ear- on his soul.

"Pearl is unconscious! We can't!" replied Garnet as another crushing strike squealed somewhere inside him, and he felt the bubble waver. Garnet got to her feet and stood beside him. "Get Pearl and get ready to run!" she ordered. "I can't leave you!" Steven shot back.

"You have to, Steven. I swore to Rose I'd protect you, and that's what I'm doing!" Steven picked up Pearl's limp form. Just as the next blow fell, Garnet shouted to be heard. "I love you!" she said as the shield collapsed, and the hammer fell onto Garnet's two-gauntlet defense.

For a moment she stood valiantly, holding back the weight and strength of the hammer and Ruby fusion. Then with startling agility, Ruby withdrew the hammer and struck Garnet with the same two-pronged instrument Jasper had used on her on the warship. Garnet gasped in shock as she un-fused into Sapphire and her own Ruby, who both disappeared in a shower of blue and red embers.

As the gems fell, crimson bubbles caught them, and there they floated in the passageway. Steven had to tear himself away as Giant Ruby directed an awkward one-handed stroke at him with the magic hammer. It missed him by inches, but the magic in it was something he could now _feel_.

He ran through the central hall and turned to get Pearl as far from danger as he could, but his path was cut off as the hammer smote down where he was headed. He skidded to a stop and turned around. Giant Ruby swung the hammer up again, ready to crush Steven with it, when Amethyst's whip wrapped around the haft and stopped it cold. Ruby roared and turned on her.

Amethyst felt the magic of the hammer biting into her, and almost immediately dropped the whip. "Ah! What is that!?" she cried. "It's some kind of magic in the hammer, don't touch it!" he warned. "Late!" she sassed. Amethyst produced two more of her scourges and leapt into the air, avoiding another attack by Ruby. The floor shuddered violently, and it felt like the Shrine had been hit by a mountain.

Amethyst unleashed an assault of alternating cracks of her thorny scourges, at Ruby's ankles, at her wrists, at anything Ruby couldn't defend behind the much slower hammer. For a moment, Ruby was forced into a retreat, uncertain how to meet this new challenge, and backed several paces. Steven decided to take this opportunity to make his break.

Ruby spotted Steven's movement, and snarled. Instead of swinging at Amethyst, she directed then next attack against the floor. A wave of violent movement rippled outward from the hit, and Amethyst and Steven were hurled into the air. Steven's legs gave and Pearl slid across the floor when he dropped her. The little glass ball that the figure of Fluorite had been holding clanked to the floor beside him, and rolled away, past Pearl and against the wall.

Almost as soon as she landed, Amethyst was scooped up, and it made her cry out in surprise. Then, in another act of vicious cruelty, Ruby dropped her, and with her giant boot, kicked her as hard as she could down the passageway leading to the dorms.

"Amethyst!" he cried, but she didn't move. Steven grunted as a huge, red hand seized him up and lifted him suddenly into the air above Pearl. Giant Ruby's grip wasn't just strong, but hot, and it must have been terribly hot because Steven could feel the heat through the layers of aluminum and ceramic Pearl had built into the outer shell of his suit.

"Rose Quartz, you shattered my Diamond. I was there. I saw what happened! And now you're gonna pay for it!" she roared, shoving him against the wall with one hand and hefting the huge hammer with the other.

"Let go of my son!" snarled Greg as he charged. Ruby almost managed to spring a grin until he impacted against her leg with one of the styluses from the amphitheater. He jabbed her as hard as he could with it. Ruby howled in shock, and dropped Steven. He almost landed on the wreckage of Peridot's repeater.

Adding to the chaos, the dim lights began to blink on and off. A huge hologram of Peridot appeared in the center of the great hall. "You leave my friends alone, you CLOD!" she said. Giant Ruby drew the stylus out of her leg and hurled it through the image.

Steven and Greg were halfway to the end of the passageway that led to the amphitheater. Maybe if they could get to the ship, it had more powerful protection. Steven knew he couldn't muster his bubble against that hammer again. It was- it was doing something to his magic. Heavy footfalls were closing quickly. They just needed to get another fifty meters and they could be inside of the elevator, they just-

A huge, red foot crashed into the wall ahead of them, and cut them off. Greg and Steven skidded in their boots trying to stop and change direction, but between the fine dust and the polished glass, ice would have been better. As they crashed into the foot, Steven felt himself being lifted and then dropped as a great weight landed on him.

At first he thought he'd finally been caught by Ruby's hammer, but quickly realized that his Dad had hurled himself on top in a final, desperate attempt to protect him. He felt the ground shake, and heard Ruby grunt. He looked up from his face-down position. A weird, pink-yellow haze obstructed the hammer, and Ruby raised it again.

Steven could hear Mars' thin air rushing out of the way as Ruby directed another arcing blow at them. He winced as the barrier flashed and the hammer rebounded. Ruby tried four more times in rapid succession, roaring as she did, but was only rewarded with frustration and sore hands.

The lights had stopped flashing at Peridot's control, and now gave their original dim glow. Ruby looked at the two through the barrier, then turned to look again towards the Hall of Titans. Steven looked where Ruby was looking. It was a long way, but he could see very clearly.

It was the first time he'd seen her intact and out of bed, in real life. She seemed a little taller now. Her robes were still a blue and purple, flowing affair. Her head dress was somewhat different, though it was hard to tell exactly from here how. Something new about Topaz was the streak, the scar, of pink and purple through her, angled right down the middle.

Another new thing he noticed was how her gaze cast pale light onto the fusion, and how it gave away how one under her observation was being assessed, her eyes two pinpoints of light in the distance. First the rays played over him and Greg. Then it moved onto Ruby, lingered there for a moment, then took in at length the hammer. Then it returned to Ruby, and became as crisp at the edges as it was bright in the center.

The light gave everything true color, it gave lines and details definition. It gave shadows sharp edges that defined the boundary between light and darkness. It gave no warmth. "Ew! What are you supposed to be? Get outta my way!" spat Ruby. The two yellow pinpoints sharpened on the fusion.

" _Ruby._ " The first part rolled, the middle growled, and the end sounded like a hiss. The word as it was spoke sounded like something with too many legs dragging its prey into some dark corner, and as it passed over Steven's ears he was sure it had left a trail. It made him shudder, and he would have sworn he'd just heard the worst word in _all of_ _language_.

Ruby fumed. She bared her teeth as the handle of the weapon groaned under the power of her grip. Her feet shifted as she moved to face Golden Topaz. The Gem facing Ruby didn't adjust her pose, but her expression intensified. Her brow folded, and her left hand clenched and shook at her side.

Steven noticed his hair on end, and the familiar sensation of false movement as the dust he lay on washed out from under him in some unseeable undertow, to form a rotating cloud around Topaz. Ruby struggled to remain on her feet, and cast around for the source of the disturbance, but finally resorted to shielding her face and waiting for it to stop.

As the dust whipped and surrounded Golden Topaz, it began to curl into flowing helical columns that arrayed like a monument around her as she rose into the air. Some of the lights in the clusters burst in showers of sparks. The twisted columns now glowed as the upper reaches began to curl in to the space above her, even as the lower portions of the lines-of-force began to align below her.

Steven could feel the pull of her against the soles of his boots as her storm grew around her. Glowing cables of charged volcanic, iron-filled glass wound themselves around her in twisted loops until they all aligned, defining the curvature and energy of the fields at her command.

It was when her energies at their peak that she began motions to ready for battle. She stretched out her arms before her and began to trace alternating arcs in the air like the old people Steven had seen at the park, and with each stretch plucked a molten thread of obsidian from the air. The motion of plucking them wove each thread into a growing sliver of material, until she finally finished her weapon.

Ruby took her hands away from her face as the dust subsided, and gaped. Topaz called the staff to her hand and stretched it out toward Ruby. As she did, silvery threads of pure energy wound around it like a serpent, and stopped at the top, where the end of the arc danced and wove.

Ruby cast her glare at Golden Topaz, setting her feet to charge. Topaz's stance was disguised beneath her hakama skirts as she cast the robe aside and met Ruby's gaze unflinching, eyes alight, readying her staff to greet her foe.


	6. Chapter 6: The Guest

Chapter Six: The Guest

Steven stared at the Healer and Counselor General, as she returned to the ground. Amoeba blobs of molten glass groaned and crackled as they met the frozen floor, showering her in a spray of orange and white sparks, which chattered as they bounced and popped. As suddenly as the light bloomed, it was replaced with near total darkness as the light clusters sputtered, unable to survive under the force of her presence. When his eyes adjusted to the dimness, she was gone. Only the dim embers now scattered on the floor where she had been standing remained.

Ruby began to scan around rapidly for this new threat. As she looked, her one eye became wider and wider, and her movements more rapid. Steven looked for Topaz, too. Something about her was not _of_ her. He'd never imagined her like this, wild, obsessed with one Gem. He was afraid of Ruby, but he knew 'Eyeball' wanted to destroy Rose Quartz and him along with her. What Topaz was on to was some other, unknown thing.

"Where are you!? Come out!" ordered the huge fusion. She slammed the hammer head-down against the floor and allowed it to stand on its own. As it struck the floor, the passageway shook, and he bounced under his Dad. The striking face of the weapon was a reach away, but Steven felt as though it were looking him over, hungrily. Greg grunted, but held Steven tightly, still shielding him from whatever Ruby might do next.

Pearl began to stir and sit up. "Steven?" she mumbled, still dazed from whatever that hammer had done to her. As she began to try to stand, a sunrise-colored bubble formed around her, and lifted her into the center of the Hall of Titans. Amethyst, still out cold joined her in a similar bubble. Two more bubbles came from another direction, these the color of the red sand. As they joined Pearl and Amethyst, they changed to the light pink-yellow which enveloped the others. "No! No! They're mine!" Ruby began to rush toward the center hall, first grabbing the wicked hammer, and brandishing it.

As she abandoned them, Steven and Greg were engulfed in the same kind of bubble that held the rest of the Crystal Gems. They rose into the air the same way the other bubbles levitated, and whisked past the furious Ruby, who spotted them and lunged, too late to effect their movement. "Rose Quartz!" she gasped in frustration. All of the bubbles rose above the center of the main hall leaving Ruby to stand far below, leaping at them.

"To use such a weapon against your own people." The words, in a resonating whisper, came from everywhere, as though the shrine itself were passing judgment. "Have you not trod upon enough corpses, bathed in enough tears?" Ruby whirled, looking for the source in the dark. She couldn't look in enough directions at once as she turned, and turned again, backing against the wall of doors where Topaz's room was.

"I'm acting under the authority of Yellow Diamond!" the fusion replied, her voice shaking. "Liar! There is no Yellow Diamond." It seemed as though the whisper was changing places around the hall now. Ruby whipped one way and then another as it did. "This world belongs to the Diamond Star Collective, under Champagne Diamond, and the only representative with authority here," came the whisper, "is _us_ ," it finished. The room brightened only a little.

Golden Topaz stood at eye level with Ruby. Her feet were planted on the wall upon which she stood as though it were a floor, within a stave's reach of Ruby. Ruby turned and squealed, recoiling with enough force to land against the statue of the silver fusion. Topaz walked down the wall with purpose and stepped easily onto the floor to stand in front of Ruby.

"Every Gem within the sacred spaces of this Shrine are under our protection," she said striding toward Ruby. Her eyes narrowed as she stopped. "How _dare_ you attack our Gems, and within the walls of our home." For a brief moment there was only the sound of his own pulse and breathing inside his helmet. Steven looked over her form. Steven had met many gems, corrupted gems, and gem mutants. He'd seen homeworld gems, gems from Earth. The way Golden Topaz was dressed now was for combat.

Her sleeves were tight until they reached her wrists, where streamers of purple and orange stripes waved in the thin air. Her shirt was equally fitted to her form to where it met her hakama that hid her legs and feet. Her broad shouldered stance, solid frame, and her confidence and posture as she held the staff entwined inside the coiled and twisting arcs of energy gave her menace. Ruby recovered her boldness, and glanced quickly upward at Steven and Greg. "Rose Quartz was sentenced over five-thousand years ago to be shattered! Give her to me!" she demanded, now sounding very desperate and frustrated, almost panicked.

Topaz raised her staff like a guidon pole and struck the butt against the floor. " _SILENCE!"_ she thundered. The whole of the shrine shook, ringing like a muted bell under the basalt and sand. She looked up at Steven. "Is it true, Steven? Are you really a Rose Quartz?" Steven flinched. The way her eyes pinched at the edge, the fold between her upturned brows, how her lips turned down. "I'm her son!" he shouted back. She tilted her head and squinted. "Her what?"

The hammer sent a wave of compression that Steven felt through the walls of the bubble. Greg grunted with the impact, and Amethyst gasped as Golden Topaz's body crashed through the wall to her room, sending debris everywhere. "Topaz!" gasped Pearl. Ruby now stood over the rubble looking victorious, and stared up at Steven again.

The earpiece in his helmet buzzed and hissed as Peridot's voice struggled through the noise. She asked something about 'going on', then after another burst of white noise said something about 'transmission' and 'warp tunnel'. Steven could think of nothing else. "We're all together in the center, Ruby's trying to get us!" He'd have to wait to hear about transmissions and warp tunnels. If they survived.

Greg looked around for a way out. Steven looked down. Ruby had climbed onto one of the plinths, and began to scale the Amethyst fusion, easily as large as the figure of Diorite. She seemed to struggle a bit due to the sheer polish and scale of the figure, but her persistence told Steven eventually she would succeed. His radio crackled again but there was nothing more than noise this time.

Ruby had reached the midsection of the great Amethyst fusion, and was reaching for her right arm, which was outstretched and could potentially give Ruby a platform to spring out at them from. Now that everyone had regained consciousness except Sapphire and her Ruby, they were scanning for an option, some action to take to escape.

Pearl scanned around, looking for some pointy thing to burst her prison on. Amethyst punched and stretched her bubble. Greg held Steven and tried to run-roll the sphere through space, all to no avail. Ruby leapt upward and got a purchase on the arm. The statue's arm, outstretched towards them, her hand closed but one finger, pointing to the little group as though to direct Ruby to action.

Steven couldn't take his eyes away from their impending fate. He hoped Peridot was safe. Lapiz was on Earth, and there wasn't enough water on Mars for her to use in any case. Lion would be lion. He worried about Topaz, but his own situation was more immediate. Ruby's eye shown crazily, and her huge, crooked grin grew as she worked hand-over-hand towards them slowly.

Her gems also shown; Eyeball, Leggy, Army, Doc- one was missing. Something about the missing Ruby sparked a strange hope in him. She had reached the mass of the statue's fist, and was negotiating how to get out to the final stretch of the finger when movement below them drew all eyes downward. The rubble shifted.

A slab of broken basalt suddenly lifted from the debris, shot up, and struck Ruby squarely, carried her through the air and forced a heavy grunt out of her. It carried her into a heavy impact between the stone and the high ceiling, then fell onto the balcony that surrounded the room, where the basalt slab shattered against the hardened glass.

Now the bubbles all moved down to meet Topaz. "Take Fluorite and my little shards, Steven. Keep them well," she asked. She never took her eyes away from Ruby, who lay still on the balcony. The bubble that held Fluorite's shards and the two little chips pushed through the same bubble wall Amethyst couldn't budge earlier, with ease.

Her light was the same pale white as before, without warmth. They way her hand still shook, the intensity in her eyes, the hyper-vigilant tension in her face, the way her tears streamed. This was not sadness. Ruby inhaled heavily, and swung to her feet. She snarled, looked around and quickly found they deadly hammer she'd been using.

"I'm sorry, Steven. No one should see this," said Topaz, and before Steven could say anything, the Hall of Titans disappeared, replaced with the machine shop. Peridot yelped and dove behind a console. "Help us!" shouted Greg and Steven together. Peridot and a gem he could not see began piercing the bubbles, first theirs, then Amethyst and Pearl, then Sapphire and Ruby. As Steven stood up from a short drop to the deck, he saw a large hologram filled with what seemed to be various angles, like a security camera. When Ruby gasped, Steven turned to see what she was reacting to.

"No, please, don't hurt me!" said the Gem, flinching. Sapphire stood behind Ruby, who held an arm out as though it would stop Sapphire, or protect her. They both stared at Navy Ruby, who cowered, shielding her face and her gem. Pearl and Amethyst both produced their weapons.

"Wait!" shouted Greg and Ruby together, both interposing themselves in front of Navy. Ruby turned around and took Navy by the shoulders. "Why aren't you fused?" she asked. When Navy began to realize that she was not about to have the full force of the Crystal Gems wrath fall upon her, she spoke.

"I can't. Something's wrong. Especially the one you call 'Eyeball'," she said. The shudder she experienced as she revealed the worst of the lot rippled outward through the group. Steven knew Navy wasn't a threat, and returned his attention to the holo-monitor.

Ruby circled Topaz slowly, looking for an opening to attack through. Topaz's stance was low, though it was shrouded under her hakama. "Why are you protecting a murderer?" demanded the big fusion, eye alight with vengeance. Topaz altered her stance. "One who revels in the deaths of Gems has no right asking," she spat back, not moving from the center of the statues.

Their voices were tinny on the speaker embedded in the side of the projector. Pearl leaned to look more closely, some new thought forming in her expression. "I've seen this-" she whispered to herself. Fusion Ruby circled a little farther. Topaz seemed immovable, determined to face the superior opponent on her own terms.

Sapphire gasped. Ruby rushed to her. "What? What is it?" Sapphire brushed her hair aside to look at her Ruby. "Fuse with me!" she urged. Ruby enthusiastically embraced Sapphire, and a blaze of light later, where they had been, Garnet now was. Her eyes were at first unfocused. Navy flinched again. Peridot consoled her.

"We have to stop her!" said Garnet with urgency. "Yeah! I just healed her!" added Steven. Garnet and Pearl both turned. "What?" they said together. "What?" Steven returned. At that moment there was a flurry of movement in the image.

Topaz still stood on the center circle of the mosaic inlaid on the floor where she faced Fusion Ruby. Suddenly, she made a tiny gesture, and Fusion Ruby sprang at her. Ruby raised and swung the huge hammer in an intimidating arc. Topaz ducked, and the hammer passed her by harmlessly. Ruby swung again as Topaz traced lines in the air, the sleeve-streamers leaving circles there. Again the hammer whiffed by without effect. Ruby continued the motion of the hammer, and swung again, and again the hammer blew through the space where the fabric had drawn their curves.

Topaz hadn't left her circle. Ruby recovered from her blow, and set herself for the next assault. Pearl shook her head. "They're out of their depth, and have no idea-" Garnet took Steven's shoulder. "Do you think you can talk to her?" Steven blinked. "I don't understand- you think the _Rubies_ are the ones who need help?" Navy pushed past Peridot. "Please!" she begged.

Pearl pointed at the monitor. Now Topaz took a step back, eyes locked on her enemy. Ruby rushed in again, sweeping with the weapon, and missing. Topaz zigged backward. Ruby swung again, missed again. The striped streamers wove through the air, and left after-images in Steven's eyes as he watched. Ruby proceeded to sweep again and again through the empty space where Topaz was. Ruby was blindly attacking after-images. Steven realized that the entirety of Topaz's outfit was a trick; her stance invisible; her movement transformed into lies; the spaces around her, a feint.

Topaz was armored in the foolishness and impatience of her opponent. But Ruby was still driving her back. They were heading down the hall to the place where all the tubes and cones were stored. "She'll be cornered!" he exclaimed. Pearl shook her head. "Look!" Topaz evaded blow after blow and retreated step-by-step, but the passageway they were in was many meters across. Had she wanted to at least change direction, she easily could have.

"Whoah," said Amethyst not out of her usual sarcasm, but in genuine awe. Steven watched. The movement of the battle, how much work Ruby had to do to operate the hammer, to keep up. There was no part of this battle that was not under the control of the yellow and orange Gem. "We could make a run for it," Peridot realized. Navy looked at her in horror. "No! Please, save them!" she begged.

Topaz and Ruby were about to enter the node at the end of that passageway. Whatever was going to happen next would happen in there, or near there. Steven looked at Peridot. Their path to the ship and retreat was safe. He looked at Navy. Four Gems faced something they couldn't possibly understand. And Topaz was beyond her even her own iron discipline, driven there by the evil memories unjustly given her by something even more wicked, potentially to do something as bad as any memory she already had.

"We have to save them all!" Steven charged for the door, but found himself quickly overtaken by Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst as Navy struggled to keep up. "Steven! Be careful!" yelled Greg after them, worry thick in his voice. They reached the central hall, and made a turn down the passageway that led to the storage room. They stopped almost instantly as a mighty shock rippled through the floor. The ancient doors protecting the storage room's contents groaned and then burst into splinters of glass and magic. Sparks and shards showered outward in every direction as the energies that made them work coursed through the air and grounded in pops and explosions. They peered down the passageway.

Ruby roared in exasperation. "Aaagh! If I can't smash you, I'll burn you up!" she said, panting. She inhaled, causing dust to shift towards her. There was a terrifying pause, and then Ruby exhaled. Waves and ripples of heat filled the space between her and Topaz, around Topaz. The hanging rows of robotic limbs began to glow orange, as did the bowls holding the cutting shoes, and the gem-drill cylinders.

Robotic limbs began to fall noisily to the floor, some shattering into glowing blobs of metal. The buckets holding the cutting shoes drooped and sagged, and the stands that held the cylinders began to buckle and tip, falling to the floor in a terrible clatter. Even the walls and floor began to glow a hellish, dim red as Ruby's invisible, wrath-filled flame roared through the air.

Waves of heat poured down the hall, and even Steven could begin to feel it through his suit. Over the roar of the heat came a voice in bursts. At first he couldn't discern what it was, but Ruby was running out of steam, and the roar was dying down. Someone was laughing. Topaz was laughing at Ruby.

"What was funny about that?" mused Amethyst, but to Steven, the notes weren't mirthful song. Just listening was difficult for him as each outburst rang out. Topaz hung in the air in front of Ruby, who gaped at her. Each note was a laughing sob, mourning all of the people, and time, taken from her.

"Heat!?" she chortled. "Our name is Topaz, 'Ta-paz' in the old language." She cried her laugh again. "We command the inner forces of the _stars_! We _are_ fire!" Her voice resonated throughout the Shrine. "Perhaps you need an open space to war properly," she said. Steven's hair stood on end again as the air began to charge.

"Cover him!" shouted Pearl, and instantly Garnet and Pearl tackled Steven as Amethyst turned into a bubble around them. Even under all of the Crystal Gems and Amethyst's total coverage, Topaz's outburst flashed through, and he could see the massive arc of fundamental energy discharge itself from her into the wall above Ruby.

As it struck, there was what felt like an explosion, and it seemed like the entire Shrine had shifted in a single burst in one direction. Steven's ears rang. As he shook off the shock, the Crystal Gems likewise recovered. Pearl leaned against a wall holding her head. Amethyst staggered to regain her feet. Garnet picked him up and set him on his feet, then shook her head. Little Navy lay face down and groaned.

"Amethyst!?" exclaimed Pearl. Amethyst spun to face her as she held out her hands trying to navigate. Amethyst was bleached, and staggered around, blindly. "Go! I'll be fine. You, too, Navy, go!" she said, finding a wall with Pear's help. Garnet first reached for Amethyst, clenched her mighty gauntlets, and picked up Steven. "Hold on!" she ordered, and sprinted to the space where Topaz and Fusion Ruby had been battling. Pearl wasn't far behind, carrying Navy.

Cylinders lay half melted and scattered everywhere, alongside conical drill bits, cutting shoes, melted armatures, and broken chain and frames. There was no sign of Topaz or Ruby. Many meters above them was a hole, burned or blasted through the meters of carbon nano-tube and graphene-zirconium ceramic glass that made the structure of the Shrine. The edges still glowed. "There!" Garnet jumped up through the opening.

As they landed, she set him down, and waited for Pearl. Pearl jumped up, and Garnet lifted her and Navy through the smoldering hole without touching the sides. Above them, the great basalt shell that had encased the Shrine now showed faults and fissures. Beyond them, scattered on the plains above the canyon, great chunks of volcanic stone lay fragmented, likely mates for the blown-out crag they stood in.

Off to the south two distant figures each waged war upon the other. Impacts registered in the thin air, and Ruby's wrathful cries and grunts as she swung the greedy thirstful weapon came distantly to their ears. Even through her fury, the effort of wielding such an out-sized weapon had begun to tell. Each swing ended in an overstep, out of balance. Topaz hid within the armor of her opponent's self-inflicted illusion and excess, unabating, building into her own full fury.

"Topaz! Stop!" cried Steven, but she was unhearing, either by distance or by will, he didn't know. "We have to get closer," he said to Garnet. She nodded, and again hefted him. Pearl took up Navy, and they sprinted to get closer. Topaz kept Fusion Ruby's attention throughout the battle.

"Friend-slayer! Shard-eater! Parched accumulation of dissimilar particulates!" accused Topaz. Ruby took another exhausted swipe at her. The arc was so low, the head of the hammer bit into the ground and wrenched itself from her hands. Ruby took to punching and kicking at her. If the participants weren't bent on destruction, it might have been comical as Fusion Ruby flailed about.

"Is ducking and bouncing around all you do? Fight me!" she bellowed. Topaz did not oblige, only moving and leading her away. Steven realized that they were tracing a path to the plain that led to the canyon where Topaz's residence had been cast down. Alarm raced through him. She thought Fusion Ruby was the fusion that had murdered Fluorite. She was going to shatter Ruby in the same place Fluorite had been.

"Topaz! No! Don't!" he called out. Ruby whirled around and spotted him. New energy and hate flooded through her, and she charged at him as the juggernaut she was, collecting the hammer as she went. Her size gave her great strides, and she covered a distance quickly, but Topaz was faster. It was the same speed Steven had seen in her memory. Topaz had covered the distance almost instantly, and the air she had displaced now caught up and nearly swept Steven off of Garnet's mighty shoulder.

"You!" snarled Topaz as she assessed Ruby briefly before they clashed. Ruby smote the hammer down where Topaz had been only an instant before, and the blow thundered through the ground, but it was eons too late. Topaz had ducked under the attack. Her first uppercut stood Ruby up, her next body-shot forced Ruby into the air, the next fired Ruby into the sky. The last downward chop with the obsidian staff drove Ruby streaking downrange onto the plain below Topaz's window.

Ruby crashed down in a cloud of shattered stone and alluvial silt, broken rocks tracing dusty arcs in every direction. Topaz lifted the thirsty hammer in one of her telekinetic fields, and floated off in the direction of the rising cloud, where dust devils began to form. The Gems raced after her as she crossed the distance, crackling the air in her path.

She landed near the crater Ruby was climbing out of. As Ruby stood, Topaz tossed the hammer and it landed at the feet of the great fusion. "Your weapon. So no claim may be made that when justice was done upon you, the challenge was unfair," she said through her teeth. Ruby picked up the hammer.

Just as she hefted the weapon into a ready posture and Topaz began to tense, Navy dove onto the ground between them. "No! Stop! Please don't hurt them!" she begged, standing back up. Ruby and Topaz stopped in shock. Steven wanted to join her, but Garnet's grip was iron. "Stop, please!" he shouted. The soul-less light emitting from her gem flickered as Topaz stood, frozen.

Ruby's backhand struck Navy squarely, casting her through the air end over end against a boulder. The hammer clashed against Golden Topaz's staff, and rang off-key like some huge distorted bell. Topaz slid back with the force, her feet gouging divots until she stopped. She glanced at Navy, and returned the fury. She struck Ruby in the chest, again, and again, each impact driving her back, toward the chasm where the remains of Topaz and Fluorite's existence together lay shattered.

Steven panicked. Golden Topaz was on a rampage, to be satisfied only in empty revenge against those who were innocent. This battle wasn't about technique, or power, or experience; it was about memory, in a place made as much of memory as it was of material. Topaz wasn't going to be stopped by force or pleading. Ruby was fighting on behalf of a memory of Pink Diamond. Topaz fought for every Gem she was forced to watch shattered at the hands of Ruby Fusions on the orders of the Council.

Only memory would be good against other memories. "Garnet, put me down!" Garnet shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere! Please, I have to concentrate!" he plead. She placed him on the ground, and he closed his eyes. All around him the dust-devils swirled, and sand hissed against his suit. Impact after impact raced up his feet as the Gems warred, claps of shock echoing in his ears. He needed to make contact with her mind, her true self.

Flickers of memory began to invade his own, and he knew he was close to making contact. Here was her mind. Ruby Fusions lifted mauls and hammers. "Topaz, stop!" The ground thumped under the blows. "It wasn't her!" Gems cried out. Ruby Fusions begged to stop. "You have to stop!" The purple and white Gem laughed, and pointed. "Start with that one!" she said.

The purple gem startled him so badly that he opened his eyes. Ruby lay on her back, with her hands up in vain defense as Topaz raised the staff and poised to lance it end-on at her. He closed his eyes again. He couldn't get swept into the memories anymore. She had the white mane, and the purple hue. Everything was a joke to her. "No!" He focused.

"You have no right, no authority for this! Not this, never this!" he forced the thought through with as much energy as he could muster. The shocks stopped. Steven opened his eyes. Topaz stood staring into the whirling dust and sand, her limbs limp at her sides, nearly obscured by the storm. Vague images projected from her as her memories began to take shape against the dust.

Ruby exploded through the images from the wall of blowing sand. "No!" shouted Steven, but it was too late. Ruby grabbed Topaz in her left hand and lifted her into the air, as her other hand coiled back with the hammer. "Look me in the eye so I cannn-!" she began, but her words trailed off as she met Topaz's eyes. Soon their expressions matched, eyes wide, jaws open. The hammer slid out of her grip as her mind entered the memory. Images played against the eye wall of red and orange, distorted by the movement.

Blurry Gems moved about, ghosts in a mist. As Steven watched, large red gems moved, collecting gems of other types, one that had to be Fluorite, and the one giving orders to the Rubies. He was certain now, even though whatever sound there was got drowned under the roar of the storm. Pearl suddenly grabbed his shoulder as the images progressed and turned him away, hugging him close to her. "Oh! No, Steven, don't watch!" she said.

He almost struggled under her protection, but decided to just wait. He heard the same noises he'd heard that first day on Mars that had been played from the little clock. He flinched when he heard "No!" followed by the sickening 'crack'.

With the sound of Fluorite's last moment, the Fusion Ruby dissolved, and four Ruby Soldiers tumbled out onto the plains. Topaz fell to the ground and lay still, as her memory receded with the dying winds of the maelstrom, dust-devils seeming to lose strength, or interest, and wandering off. Steven looked around and realized how close they were to the chasm.

Doc, Leggy, Army, and Eyeball lay strewn around like dolls cast aside by a reckless child. Their faces re-told the story they had just witnessed. Doc was the first to recover. She sat up and looked around, at first in a daze, then with more and more focus. She found Topaz, and looked on with confusion. She took inventory of her own Rubies, first Army, then leggy, and stopped with Eyeball.

"Where-?" Doc stood and began searching. She spotted Navy lying face-down next to a slab of sandstone. Garnet couldn't help herself any longer. "Steven, help Topaz. Pearl, go with him!" she said. Garnet rushed over to Navy with Doc. Garnet let Doc go ahead of her. When they arrived, Doc gently turned Navy over. Garnet stifled a gasp, Doc stood.

"How bad am I?" asked Navy. Her gem wasn't only cracked down the front, but a chip had come off and lay on the ground beside her. Doc knelt down, and began to reach under Navy to pick her up, but Garnet stopped her. "No- Don't move her." Garnet turned around to look for Steven. Doc paced in a panic. "I'm sure you'll be okay- Someone help! Please!" she cried out. Garnet found Steven over by Topaz. "Steven, come quick!"

Topaz was in some sort of daze, similar to how she was the last time the clock went off, but otherwise uninjured. He heard Garnet call to him, and he rushed over to her. "She's chipped- um," he started. "Don't move-" he ordered and went back to Topaz. "Wake up! Wake up, we need you!" he cried, shaking her. Her eyes focused. "Steven," she registered vaguely. Then she sat up abruptly. "Steven!? Are you unhurt?" she demanded, examining him and turning him. "It's not me, it's her!" he replied, grabbing her hand and pointing at Navy. Topaz turned. "Oh, stars and leylines!" she gasped, standing and gliding quickly over to them.

Doc saw Topaz and stiffened, but disciplined herself, resisting the urge to defend her troops. She had seen some of the things this Gem could do, and hadn't done _to_ them, during the entirety of the fight. Doc simply moved aside, and paced. Topaz and Steven knelt down on either side of Navy. Topaz picked up the chip and examined it closely as Steven leaned over Navy and examined the fissure.

He realized he had no training for this, and if there was some instinct for it, it wasn't making its presence known. Topaz examined the fissure herself, and smiled. "Rambunctious Rubies. This is a basic cleavage fracture, and all your bits are here." Her smile and confidence set Navy and Doc and now Army, Leggy and Eyeball, who had just now joined them, at ease.

"Steven, this is simple, but not easy. It will take time, and you must be in a space where you don't need your protective layers." She stood and collected herself. "We must move you somewhere better," she asserted. She held out her hands, and an yellow field of energy gently lifted Navy upward. "Inside," she ordered. She called her staff, which flew to her hand. She dismissed the energies from it, and handed it to Doc.

The party followed Steven and Topaz to the Shrine, where they entered the structure through the new wound blasted through it. Steven watched Topaz, and no matter what was going on, she could not meet his eyes. The went into the destroyed storage and found Amethyst leaned against a melted frame in a corner digging clumsily through the ruin. When she heard the group, she turned and tried to see them.

"Oh! Is the fight over? Did I miss it?" she said, disappointed. She traced her eyes around in unfocused sweeps, clearly coping with whatever injury her sight had suffered. "Hey, I found some more of those cube-data-video-thingies, I think they might be important. Somebody buried them under a bunch of junk," she said. Topaz turned to her and peered at the cubes.

"This was Fluorite's main garden. This entire wing was made hers-" Topaz re-focused. "You're injured, come with us," she instructed. Garnet scooped Amethyst up and began toward the broken door. "Put me down! I can walk!" she protested. "Nope." Garnet's tone said everything. "Ugh, fine," finished Amethyst, knowing there was little point resisting, knowing that she was hurt.

They ran into Peridot and Greg in the Hall of Titans. "Steven!" cried Greg. "Something fried my radio! I couldn't get through!" Greg swept Steven up in a big hug, and exhaled. "Dad, I'm okay, but we have to help Navy, she's hurt bad!" Steven explained. Greg looked at the red gem and winced. Peridot stopped the group. "Wait! We have to get her to the ship. Something overloaded my Peridot Pressurization module." She scampered ahead to get the elevator doors.

They arrived at the ship, and Steven felt the suit go slack again after moving through the permeable force-field. Pearl cast him and Greg a glare as they reached for their helmet seals until Peridot reported that the atmosphere was 1012 millibars, suitable for taking off the helmets. She nodded, and they groped at the controls through their heavy gloves. After a moment, Pearl and Peridot realized they would need to help.

Taking off the helmet felt amazing. Steven looked around the cabin of the _Roaming Eye,_ and realized how crowded it could get with this many gems inside it. Steven took his gloves off, knowing that he'd be called on to contribute to some healing. Topaz began to lower Navy down when Steven stopped her.

"Here, lay her on this," he explained, laying out beat-up sleeping bag and pillow. Topaz nodded and lowered Navy gently down. Garnet set Amethyst down next to Navy on Greg's bedroll. "My staff, please?" asked Topaz. Doc handed it to her, and she bowed. Topaz held it out, as she had done before, and blew gently onto it. Pale threads of weaving energy twisted around it until they reached the other end, reproducing the serpentine arcs that had adorned it preceding the battle.

"She needs the positive energies of her friends- Rubies, come near." She held out the staff from the center over the length of Navy. "Place your hands on the staff, and think about your friend." Doc didn't hesitate, so Army and Leggy followed suit. Eyeball stood motionless for a moment, haunted. "You, too," soothed Topaz, who eased her forward. Eyeball reached for the staff, briefly meeting Doc's eyes, before wrapping her hand around the glass. Doc forced herself to look down at Navy, and wrench her gaze away from Eyeball.

The weaving energies that had twined around the staff now caressed and played on the hands of the Rubies, changing to red as it coursed and moved, uninterrupted in its path from one end of the staff to the other.

"Oh- it's warm!" said Army. "Yes. The center is still molten. Would you Rubies please keep the center from setting?" asked Topaz, who received solemn nods from the red gems. "And you, Steven, and the rest, please. Touch the staff, and direct your energies to your friend," she instructed. Steven had no compunctions about touching the staff, but Garnet and Pearl hesitated. Peridot didn't understand what was going on, but her empathy for Navy led her to touch the staff.

Topaz released the staff. "Steven, summon your tears, and apply them to the chip, then touch it to its spot on her gem." Steven cleared his throat. "Er, it's spit." Eyeball nodded. Topaz looked between them. "Yes. Do that, whatever your means is," she said, puzzled. She gave the little chip to Steven. Eyeball watched him intently as he worked. He did it without malice. His concern for Navy had been constant since the moment he knew she was hurt. He placed the chip.

"Good, now hold it with pressure, but keep your hand to the side. I'm going to add my own essence and feed it through the staff. As it passes by each of you, it takes on whatever you are feeding into the system. Now, I just- tears-" she said. Topaz held her hand below her eye, and frowned. "Oh, Fluorite. You've given me your weepy-ness, so why- ah!" she said as a sudden, steady stream of tears now pattered onto her palm.

Magic now encompassed the flow, and sunlight seemed to run in streams and droplets from her cheeks to the end of the staff farthest from Navy's gem. The coursing energies tracing happily over the length of the staff and the hands of the gathered friends gained intensity and volume, brightening the cabin. Topaz moved across from Steven by Navy's gem, and touched the end of the staff. Every hand on the guidon took on its own warm glow.

"Each of you, touch her gem, gently, until you know the healing has passed into it." Each of the Rubies, then Garnet, Peridot, and Pearl did as they were asked. One by one they transferred the charge until the radiance was moved entirely to Navy's gem. Soundlessly, the fissure sealed up, and every flaw that had been, now receded until it was gone. Topaz smiled at Navy and then at the others. "I think that's the fastest I've seen it go," she announced. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"I, uh. Um, wow. Better?" Navy said shyly. She stood up and received a round of hugs from her fellows, pats on the shoulders, greetings and congratulations. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault, I'm glad you're back," offered Eyeball. Navy only smiled back. "Good, good, now that you feel like you can conquer the galaxy, you can start by lying down." Topaz's authoritative tone had Navy stretching out on Steven's bedroll smartly.

"Now let's have a look at you," she said, turning to Amethyst. Topaz reached down and turned her cheeks, raised her chin and looked into her eyes. Then she conjured a light that projected from her fingertip the way an electric torch would, and shined it into Amethyst's eyes. "Can you see this? Follow it just with your vision spheres if you can." She moved her finger, and Amethyst tried to track it. "I see," remarked Topaz to herself, and leaned down to examine Amethyst's gem. She looked for a moment, and suddenly froze. Then she recoiled as though under threat. "S- Steven, this should be simple enough. Can you show me how you've been healing gems, please," she said quickly, her voice thin and cracking.

All of Steven's suspicions were largely assured now. He went around the little crowd of Rubies, and hugged Topaz reassuringly. "Okay, Amethyst, are you ready?" he asked. "Ew, ew, ew no, don't you dare put your spit on me! Let Topaz... do, uh, what she does, just no spit! I want Golden Topaz to do it." Steven nodded and looked to Topaz.

"Excuse me, Steven," she said, recovered now from whatever hesitation she had. She conjured a tiny stream of tears, and gently touched Amethyst's gem. Over a few seconds her bleached color deepened into her classic white and purple. "Oh, so much better!" cried Amethyst, springing to her feet. She changed into her luchador form and flexed. "I feel much stronger now!"

Topaz couldn't help herself, and laughed. Amethyst beamed proudly, then stopped suddenly. "Oh! I found these in that storage room. What's on 'em?" she asked, handing several data cubes to Topaz. Topaz looked them over. "I don't know," she said, turning one over in her fingers. She turned her eyes toward Amethyst. "Will you rest if I asked you to?" Amethyst nodded sincerely. Topaz blinked. "Oh! Er, yes, rest. For just a moment. You'll be fine. All of you will be." She used the staff to stand.

She looked over the group with affection. Garnet among the rubies, Pearl and Peridot fussing over sensors and discussing something animatedly, Amethyst, and finally Steven. She still could not meet his eyes until she forced herself. She met his eyes and bowed deeply. There was no story, or memory to share in some dream state there, only humiliation. "We are eternally grateful that you came all this way, and risked so much to rescue us. You have saved us many times over, only to discover the sort of monster your friends thought to protect you from. I feel I've done you harm in return for your kindness."

She stood, and turned toward the door. "We'll be here. You and your friends may come whenever you please," said Topaz, and floated off through the door. "What? No, wait! I don't understand!" shouted Steven as the permeable barrier rippled closed behind her. Amethyst stopped him before he raced out after her. "Helmet, Steven!" she ordered.

"What- what's going on? Where's she going?" asked Peridot, rotating on her chair. Steven rushed to put his helmet on. "Help me! She thinks she doesn't deserve to be rescued- Why won't this..." he struggled with the seals until Pearl helped him. Amethyst rushed out after Topaz.

She caught up quickly. Topaz started a little when Amethyst ran to her side. "Where are you going?" Amethyst demanded. "To atone." Topaz looked at her as they went. "We owe you an apology as well." Amethyst blinked. "What for? I'm over the blindness thing- you healed me," she assured.

"And for that, we are also sorry. Come with us, and we'll explain." They reached the Hall of Titans. Topaz took them to stand before the towering figure of the white and purple fusion, whose expression was both smug and fiery. Its one arm reached out to point at Diorite, who only smiled back serenely, the image of grace.

"Who is that?" asked Amethyst, standing at the base of the colossus. "They are," Topaz inhaled, "Amethyst, the fusion, one of the founders of the colony on this planet. All of these here are the colonial founders, the Council." Topaz indicated the other figures at the base of each fusion. "Amethyst RG7 and RG8. My mentors in understanding combat."

"Where are they now?" Amethyst cajoled. Topaz floated up to the level of the one at the right foot of the fusion, the one she'd called RG7, and bowed to it. "I defeated RG7 in single combat for defending organic life on this world." She leaned in and placed her head against the head of the figure, and whispered "I'm sorry." She touched the faux gem in it's arm, and turned toward the other Amethyst, RG8.

"I fought RG8 and lost, defending the same organic life." A cascade of feelings flowed through her being, and all of the onlookers now present witnessed each one as they passed. "She was the one who sent me to arrest the rebels; The one who demanded I give them over for "justice"; The one who gave the Rubies the command-" She touched her gem. For a moment she was lost in memory.

Someone's feet crunching in the spalled glass awoke her, and she quickly abandoned the memory in favor of the present, and finished the introductions. "Here is Golden Star Sapphire. Her spell is the reason some of you cannot see. Conjoined twins. I had to separate them when they emerged from the stone of our kindergarten, the first healing we ever did." She curtsied before each of them. "Wise beyond words, and our closest friends. This," she moved to the front of the great silver figure, "is Zirconia, a fusion of unparalleled precision in ceramics. S8 and U1. U1, struck by a falling rock. I healed her much as I could. She couldn't use her right vision sphere, but that didn't stop her from becoming the cleverest fabricator on- Mars."

Steven watched her. This felt like when he would claim to have to use the bathroom when Pearl asked him to do the dishes. She was lingering here, avoiding something. "Bismuth. The grand maker of the Capital Spire, and all the other grand places of this world. B2 and F11. Geniuses." Topaz passed her own image on her way to the Diorite. "There's this one," she mumbled, "and Diorite," she said in a resonant voice, "patient as time itself. An illegal fusion, tolerated only because of their aptitude for creating order from disagreement and chaos." Finally she lighted onto the plinth, in front of the pink and purple figure.

"Fluorite. She created this space, and was the crafter of images and records. It was her duty to inscribe for all time the deeds of Gems, with objectivity and veracity. It was she who explored new things and pursued knowledge. I think it was her nature that led her to love and nurture the organic life we found here." She noticed that the figure's hands were empty, only nodding in acceptance.

Steven wanted to go to her, but Garnet held his shoulder. Topaz turned to face the last colossus, and set herself down in the circle at the center of the hall, hugging her arms closely, head down. "I've stalled long enough." Amethyst took a step forward, only to be restrained as well. "She needs this, let her finish," said Garnet.

The last of the statues did not stand over any Gems, but towered alone on her dais. Topaz bowed, then knelt facing her. "I've never accessed this function. This whole process may be a waste." Over the course of a long moment, she summoned her courage. Then she faced each of the figures in turn, and gestured to it. Each time a striker buried within it caused it to chime, each note fine and deep, and Steven believed he could feel the sound in his gem. Topaz finished by facing the lone figure.

"My Diamond," she began. The great statue suddenly and soundlessly rippled with light, and knelt down, looking down onto Topaz with empathy and affection. "You may speak," said an otherworldly voice with no source. The lips of the titan didn't move, and they Crystal Gems realized what they were seeing was a sort of pre-recorded interaction.

Steven also realized that he'd seen this Gem before, as a huge bas-relief on the door that led into the dormitory. Topaz was kneeling before an image of Champagne Diamond. "I have failed you, my Diamond. I have violated my oaths. I have failed to protect our people, failed to keep order, and failed to finish our mission here." Topaz glanced at Steven and the rest. "Step back!" she hissed. Each of them did so involuntarily.

"I must atone," she said, and winced. "If atonement must be done, refresh your oaths, and find your purpose renewed," replied the statue. Topaz blinked, and looked around. She worked her jaw, not knowing what to say. Steven didn't understand what she could have been expecting, but it was clear renewing her vows wasn't it. Then she stood straight, placed her right hand over her Gem, and recited, her voice and the final resonances of the deep chimes the only music.

I swear by the unending light of my heart  
As long as magic flows through me,  
And I possess strength enough to serve  
My deeds will illuminate the dark,  
My courage give others nerve  
My strength will give fortitude to my people,  
My actions give others guidance  
My consuming fury will unmake evil,  
My leadership teach only kindness

This oath will never end  
As long as one Gem can think it  
These words will never bend  
If a Gem's voice can sing it

So swear I, Golden Topaz,  
in service to Champagne Diamond,  
and the people of the Diamond Star Collective

Her words continued to ring for a moment, as though the Shrine itself carried her sentiment as sound. Then the image of Champagne Diamond stirred. "I receive your atonement, and absolve you of guilt. Return to your people and your duties with my blessing." Topaz stared.

"We don't understand," she whispered. The towering image of the Diamond flickered and buzzed a few times before returning to its majestic pose. "You atoned. It said 'yes'," responded Amethyst impatiently. "Can we go now- Ow!" she added as garnet thumped her atop her head. "Don't be rude!"

Topaz turned in surprise. "You're still taking us with you? Even after you witnessed- _that_?" she asked, pointing down the hall filled with shards of glass to the gaping wound that led outside. "Why? I'm a criminal-" she began. Garnet stepped forward and spoke, silencing her. "We don't leave Gems abandoned. You're not the horror you claim to be." Topaz moved to reply, but Amethyst interrupted. "I saw you moving a dangerous fight away from bystanders," she sassed.

"But-" Topaz began. "-And you met a forged artifact with another forged artifact, instead of using your own weapon," added Pearl. "There are lots of reasons we don't see you the way you seem to." Garnet pointed to the gash that led outside. "This fight could have been much more horrible than it was. You stopped when you remembered, instead of getting even more angry, and making it worse." She released Steven's shoulder.

"Steven's a good judge of character, and he saw good in you." Steven smiled up at Garnet and then fixed Golden Topaz with his most serious stare. "I made you a promise, and I'm gonna keep it," he told her. She nodded. "To take us back your Earth?" she asked. Steven shook his head.

"I promised to heal you." Topaz blinked. Then she closed her eyes and put her hands together, and bowed. "That's why you're coming with us. Maybe I can't fix what they did, but I can help you figure it out," he said. She smiled at him. "The first part of healing," she said simply.

Steven went to her and hugged her. She stood rigidly as he did, surprised by the gesture. Then she softened, and returned the hug. Steven squeezed. He would protect her from the things that had harmed her before. He would learn what had gone on, and how to recognize it, and how to stop it, no matter what.

A flicker and buzz ended the hug. Everyone turned to the Diamond figure and watched as it tried to animate several times, but seemed to be malfunctioning. "What was that?" asked Pearl. "We don't know. Age? Maintenance issues? It couldn't possibly be receiving, not under all this material," Topaz assessed. After a few more fits, it stopped.

"There are a few things that must be done before we go," she said. "Yeah," said Greg. "I think we should start by putting this where it goes," he said, and handed Fluorite's little globe to Topaz. She gasped when he produced it, and received it with a curtsy and bow. The flutter of dim luminescence from her gem was replaced with the glittering daylight Steven remembered from that first day, when she spoke about the gems that would come to her and listen or tell their stories, when they came to learn.

Topaz's gathered friends gasped in awe. She sighed. "Chronic Involuntary Illumination, it comes and goes," she said simply, looking into the glass. "What? No- look!" said Greg, and directed her to lift her eyes. She stopped in awe and admiration once she realized what she was looking at. Amber outlines traced two figures on the wall above the balcony, where they seemed to dance together joyously, fueled by the light passing through the globe. "Oh Fluorite," she said, as the larger image swung the smaller through the air. "She said she'd show me what these were for-" The images faded from the wall, and she put the globe in its place.

Garnet joined her on the plinth. "She loved you very much if her art doesn't work without you." Topaz looked up at Garnet and smiled weakly. "Thank you." She turned to face the hole she'd blown through the wall. "Come with me, please. And we'll need the Rubies," she said. The edges of the opening had by now cooled, and it was much safer to pass through now.

The group assembled around the discarded hammer, and looked up at it. It was large enough that Greg cold probably have parked his van inside it, if it had been hollow. All who looked upon it did so with dread. Steven was sure he wasn't the only one who felt the malicious presence lurking hungrily inside the implement. He couldn't be. But that was silly. The war-maul was an unliving _thing,_ wasn't it? It didn't have a life inside it, did it? It lay motionless on the red and orange sand and dust beside the crater Fusion Ruby had made when she landed.

The face glinted in the weird Martian light. Much of the striking face was forged iron, but in that striking face, oxidized with age, were tiny grooves cloven into the underlying white metal. Embedded in these were minute fragments that glinted as the light struck it. Steven could feel heat building in his throat, but he fought it back.

The sun was lower now, and the shadows were growing long. His own shadow's edges were clean and sharp, as were the shadows cast by the others. The shadow of the maul rippled and writhed, and to judge only by that, one might believe it was hot, or perhaps melting, but the hammer had been at rest long enough now in the winds of Mars to be quite cool.

Doc, Leggy, and Army stood as though it would act on its own. Eyeball couldn't even look at it. Topaz approached the weapon, and held her staff aloft. "This staff's last memory before it cooled was of healing and protection." She turned and faced the group. "Thank you, Rubies." She turned around, and looked the maul over.

"This has been used for only one thing," she said. "It knows only one purpose, and it must never be used again. It's a thief, and it doesn't care who it robs, whether it's those it is used upon," she nodded to Eyeball, "or those who wield it."

Topaz stepped away, and stood beside Eyeball, touching her shoulder reassuringly. Then she raised both hands, and the war maul raised up from the ground. She cast it down into the crater. "Help us destroy it," she asked. Doc wasted no time, and heat poured from her. The other three Rubies quickly joined in, and the weapon began to glow. Topaz gently cast in an arc of her own, and over a few minutes the hammer transformed from tool to an elliptical blob of iron and sparking slag.

Whatever presence it had seemed to be gone now, and embers rose from it to meander in every direction. Amethyst stretched side to side. "I feel much better! How do you know so much about stuff?" A flurry of embers washed over Topaz, who sat down heavily on the rim of the crater. "We have been abandoned here for thousands of years," she said. Steven sat down next to her. "There was only the library, so we read." She bowed to Amethyst. "We were reacting to you based on the actions of another Amethyst. That was wrong." Amethyst smiled. "No prob, I'm over it."

They lingered by the light of the molten ingot for a while longer, arrayed in a semicircle at the rim of the divot. Pearl stirred on Steven's right. "Do you know how long you've been here?" she asked finally. "No. For lifetimes of Gems; Long enough to witness the last gasps of Mars," answered Topaz, on his left, watching constellations of embers swirl and rush away from the pyre in the wind.

"We should get going," said Garnet, getting to her feet beside Topaz. She held out her hand, and helped Topaz to her feet. They went as a group back to the Shrine, a short trek. Pearl trailed behind Golden Topaz. She looked on as Steven and Amethyst took places at either side of Topaz. Quartzes, by nature. She wondered if they were aware of what they were doing.

As they entered the central hall, Topaz recovered her robes. She dusted them off, shaking them vigorously, and put them back on. "We'll need to collect some things before we go. Steven, will you help us?" Steven beamed. Greg went with them. The Rubies went with Garnet to the ship shortly after the other group went to the machine shop.

Pearl was about to go see what Peridot had discovered in the central computer, when she saw Amethyst looking up at one of the statues. Her eyes were narrowed, focused on the Amethyst, RG8. Pearl stopped where she was. She'd rarely seen Amethyst as focused. "What is it?" Pearl asked. "I though us Amethysts were s'pose ta be fun an' stuff. "Jollity" and whatever." She frowned. "I wonder what went wrong," she said aloud.

The trio of Greg, Steven, and Topaz returned from making rounds, shutting down systems, collecting various items, mostly data cubes, and sealing the opening in the storage room. Garnet joined them. "Are we ready to go?" she asked. "We just need to go get Peridot," said Greg. "Oh- can I stay right here until you come back?" asked Steven.

"Stay. Right. Here," ordered Garnet, and Topaz, Pearl, Amethyst, and Greg went to retrieve Peridot. Soon they were out of sight. Steven sighed. He examined each of the Titans, and their wards. He shined his LED's through the little globe in Fluorite's hands, but no image played for him. He made faces at RG8, until her subtle half-smile and posture seemed too real.

Something buzzed and popped. Steven spun and found the Champagne Diamond gazing down at him, partially animated. She was knelt down again, looking at him with her head canted to one side. The image was unsteady. Steven recovered his bearing. Age had ruined whatever magic or mechanism made it operate.

He smiled up at her despite himself. "Hi! I know you can't hear me, but I'm Steven. Uh, Golden Topaz's new student." The statue seemed to stare, motionless, until it buzzed again, and managed through the static utter one clear phrase- "ssskzzzz RF8?" Steven blinked. Had this image just spoken to him? "I don't know what that means! What is RF8?" he articulated. The image sputtered once more, then morphed back to its majestic pose as one of the titans, and remained motionless.

He stared up at the Diamond for several moments. He studied her closely to remember every feature. She was every bit as tall as Yellow or Blue. She had none of Yellow's sharp edges, and more composure than Blue. Her vestments weren't for combat, as evidenced by Yellow's rigid armor, nor was it glamorous as Blue's hood and cloak. She seemed dressed for some craft, and he realized that her clothes were somewhere between Topaz and Fluorite's. He wondered if there was some division of purpose between the diamonds in ancient times.

"Boo!" Amethyst entered his field of vision so suddenly that he leapt straight up. "Amethyst!" he snapped, and then realized that he was not descending. Amethyst lay on the ground far below him rolling in laughter. "Oh, honestly, Amethyst. Sometimes- Garnet, can you get Steven?" sighed Pearl. Garnet simply nodded and stretched her arms out to him as he tried to remember how to fall, and frog-kicked uselessly toward Garnet's hands. He looked at Topaz, who had her hand over her mouth. Her shoulders were shaking, and she was glancing between Amethyst and himself.

Her gem glowed amber and pale rose, and when he was finally on his feet, she couldn't conceal it anymore, and burst out laughing, joining Amethyst's own guffaws. Greg was beside himself with worry, and rushed to Steven. "Buddy, are you okay?" Steven nodded. Topaz put her hand on Greg's shoulder. "She is of a Rose Quartz, Greg, fear not. Quartzes are not frail gems," she consoled. "Oh, I know. But Steven is a 'he', a boy." Topaz blinked. "A 'he'. A 'boy'," she noted, and frowned. "Dad, it's okay," Steven assured him. Topaz covered her gem and bowed. "We're sorry, Steven. We don't know what that is," she explained.

"Steven is my son," added Greg. Topaz turned to him, the corners of her eyes pinched. "I thought s- he was Rose Quartz's son-" she began, looking between them. Pearl jumped in as Greg looked to her for aid. "Steven," she said, taking him by the shoulders, "is 'of' Rose _and_ Greg," she oversimplified. "He's part human-" started Greg.

"What's a human?" asked Topaz weakly, knowing she was very much out of her depth. "Well, I'm the human, he gets that from me," Greg assured. She looked into his helmet for a moment as Greg blushed, but turned so she could get a better look at him. She simply looked for a moment in silence, then suddenly gasped and blurted all at once, "Water and carbon sub-structures supported by porous calcium deposits- _are you organic life?!_ " she exclaimed. "Er-yeah?" answered Greg vaguely.

She whirled around and hugged Steven before examining him. "So you are a fusion of Gem and Organic life! Oh, Steven!" She stood up and spun to the hall that led to the ruined storage, and took two steps and cried out "Oh, Fluorite!" before she stopped suddenly.

Steven knew what look was on her face without needing to see. The champagne illumination faded rapidly. Steven looked the way she was headed. A long hall, now dim but for three pale spheres of light, leading to an archway into pure darkness, and scattered with the remains of the door that once enclosed what had once been Fluorite's garden. Only Amethyst was ahead of her enough to face her, and her own expression went from gleeful to... something Steven never wanted to see again. He had no idea everyone wore the same expression.

"You were right," said Topaz, to no one. She hung her head and hugged her elbows, and turned to face Diorite and the Fluorite ward at its feet. She raised her head and faced the figure holding the little globe. "You were right," she said a little louder. Then, without prompting, began to sing;

Fair was she who often dwelt upon the orange sand  
Whose grace and art was common dealt, given by her artful hand  
Her works of glass were fine and pure, and in the least lights shown  
And even now undimmed, endure, have lost none of their glow  
This gem's words and voice were kind, and gaze was warm and bright  
A luminescence would you find, light of my life, my Fluorite

She from whom these halls were raised  
She whose hand foundations laid  
Whose love organic life has saved  
Whose sight destruction's wrath has stayed  
Who the ultimate price has paid

Truth she wrought from the glass in cubic symmetry  
And lives of Gems stored from the past given immortality  
No tale of Fluorite now is told, no record was there made  
The footprints of her works erode, the traces of her fade  
And all that remains now is me. I, not even half as bright  
But her memory burns in my heart; her, my eternal light

Amethyst wiped at her eyes. Garnet looked at the gems in her hands. Steven noticed how weird this place looked in just the lights from his suit. Peridot was first to speak. "Garnet?" she asked. Garnet snapped out of her thought, and nodded. "Let's go."

The party moved off to the elevator, Topaz framed by Amethyst and Steven again. Greg and Peridot were in the lead, and Garnet and Pearl brought up the last. Garnet seemed lost in some thought of her own. Pearl watched Steven and Amethyst. As they waited for the elevator to call, she noticed them casting a final glance at the titans. She turned to look. It was clear what gem it was they were looking at, but their expressions were unreadable. _I wonder what went wrong_ was what Amethyst had said.

The elevator arrived, and they piled in quietly. "You sing good," remarked Amethyst once the doors shut. Topaz only smiled for her. "Do gems no longer have reason to sing?" she asked. "Oh, we sing lots, but not like that," answered Amethyst. They arrived in the main hangar, near the central computer.

Steven and Topaz both stopped when they saw the hologram projected in the center. A spiral, with a bar in the center and two arms radiating out from each end rotated above the floor. Peridot dashed over to it. "Oh! I had to synch it up using a sort of work-around. It looks like the clock got reset!" she explained. "But I don't understand what it's doing."

Topaz joined her below the hologram and looked up. "It looks like a start date here," said Pearl. "But I don't understand it-" she added. The spiral was composed of clouds and points of light, and one point was highlighted. The spiral turned slowly, revolving around its center.

"That's the date- when we were placed on that table in that room you found us in," explained Golden Topaz. "When we were sentenced and abandoned," she added. There was what looked to Steven to be a progress bar to one side. The increment was barely moving. He touched Topaz's hand and indicated it. "It's finally running the program I tried to give it when Steven last visited-" she said absently as she watched the the progress indicator _not_ move as the spiral turned.

"This- Is this the Milky Way?" gasped Pearl. "No, it's a model of the local galaxy," breathed Topaz. She straightened herself, and set her feet. "Computer! Increase playback speed by eight," she ordered boldly. The galaxy now turned visibly, and the little playback indicator began finally to advance. Points closest to the spot indicating the local stellar system winked into or out of existence as the computer record registered them. After part of a minute went by it had made one complete rotation.

"It takes the Milky Way two-hundred, thirty-two million Earth years to orbit," whispered Pearl. The playback pip now had nibbled at the bar, but was scarcely going to complete soon. "Computer," started Topaz. She paused for a moment, then finished her order. "Increase playback speed to sixty-four."

Steven counted each time the point of the Solar System went around. As they watched, Topaz took a step back. Steven took her hand, and could feel her shaking. Amethyst stepped forward from them as the hologram played above, uncertain of what she was watching, or what to do. As it finished its final rotation, a series of readouts in gem text printed in blinking orange next to the display.

Peridot and Pearl went to the console at the base and began checking instruments. "It says there was a cascade of system failures about-" Peridot glanced at Pearl "-about five-thousand years ago." Pearl read something else. "Remote field emitter, lights, chemo-sensitive gem support, the maintenance droids are all down, all kinds of problems," she went on. Steven wasn't listening. The galaxy had turned seventeen more times after the first, plus a bit.

"I'm sorry, Steven," said Topaz, staring at the display. "I didn't know." She sat gracelessly on the edge of a small crate, and continued to stare. "It looks like the warp tunnels are closed. I don't see anything on the scanners," announced Peridot. Pearl shut off the display, and Topaz started. Then she turned to him, and stood slowly, dusting herself off and straightening her robes. "Take me away, Steven." She looked around at the detritus.

"If I stay, I'll spend what's left of eternity trying to make this place what it once was." She touched the purple spark in her Gem. "I don't have what I need for that anymore. It's time to leave." Steven nodded. Garnet led the way, but Pearl and Peridot hurried off ahead of them. When they arrived at the ship, Rubies were attending consoles, but for Navy. Pearl and Peridot were examining a sensor.

"So we're certain nothing came through?" called Pearl. "Affirmative," answered several Ruby voices. Pearl turned in her chair to look at Peridot. "So why did they open?" she asked. "A signal sent by the central computer did it. The other two were on a sympathetic frequency. When the first was called, the other two answered."

"Where are they?" asked Garnet. "One is on Deimos, that's the one that was called. Another one is on Phobos, and the last is on asteroid 99942," answered Pearl. "Did anything at all come through?" Garnet pressed. "There were a series of low energy transmissions, but no matter emerged," answered Doc. "So, it was data? Do we know what was exchanged, or with whom?" asked Pearl. "It was encrypted if it was data," answered Doc. Topaz frowned.

"The only warp tunnel I knew of was spatial, not affixed to a mass," she said. "It led back to homeworld." Garnet nodded to her. "Are we in danger?" she asked Peridot. "No. There's nothing out there." After the crew checked the instruments a few more times, _Roaming Eye_ warmed up its powerplant, and they began the flight home. It had only been a few hours, but it felt like they had been gone for ages.

The crew operated in silence, only speaking when they were reporting instrument readings. Topaz found a corner by the food-influenced travel totes, and sat down on the floor unceremoniously. She looked up at the overhead. Steven looked, and saw several golden globes suspended just as any bubble he'd seen. Topaz willed one of them down to her, and Steven recognized it.

Inside were her two little slivers of yellow, and Fluorite. As it descended to them, Pearl watched it, having completed a task at her station. She blinked. "How did you make it as far as Mars?" she blurted, making eye contact with Leggy. "Oh. These," answered Leggy, producing something from her Gem. "Fire extinguishers?" Pearl scoffed. "Yep. Standard issue for Rubies. It was Doc's idea," said Leggy. Doc rolled her eyes. "It's in the operations manual," she said.

The globe settled in front of Topaz and Steven. Topaz put her elbows on her knees and set her chin in her hands, gazing deeply into the sphere at the two little slivers. Steven looked with her for a long time, and eventually Greg joined them. "Are you okay?" asked Steven. Topaz met his eyes. "Physically, we're fine." She sighed deeply. "Mentally, emotionally, we're exhausted. Today was something more than a shock," she said. "No kidding," added Greg.

She assembled a smile for Steven and Greg. "We've been shocked before. We'll live." She glanced out a porthole. "We are survivors." Topaz folded her legs under herself and turned to face Greg and Steven. "We promised to teach, but," she leaned toward them, "we may have to step down as a teacher, and ask to be a student." Greg cleared his throat. "Howabout both? I'm sure you know stuff we don't," he said. Topaz nodded.

"We have to learn 'son' and 'boy', and what kind of fusion occurs between a Greg Human and a Rose Quartz," she said. Greg began to sputter when Eyeball sat down beside him. Steven felt alarm ripple through his body until she spoke. "I'm sorry. You are not your Mother. You're something new. I didn't understand." She frowned. "I didn't understand what you were, or what I was becoming."

"We just passed the moon," announced Garnet. Steven stood up excited and went to the front to see. He looked out. A distant crescent, covered in points of light on one side and clouds on the other grew in the frame of the front window. Topaz set her hand on his shoulder. "I can tell you're exited to come home," she said, smiling down on him.

Earth loomed up as the ship approached it and began to circle towards the Delmarva coastline on the farthest side. Lights glowed below them defining the cities and highways of Africa and Europe. Then they began to round toward where night was only beginning to fall, and the colors of the Earth were now much closer and more visible. The ship descended on its approach to the farm, and the sun reflected off of the Atlantic Ocean.

Topaz took her hand from Steven's shoulder and took in the view in awe as they entered the atmosphere, Earth's blue glow enveloping them. "There's so much water- it's so- not red- like a sunrise-" Topaz began. "Blue, and green, and yellow, and all of the other colors," said Peridot. "It really is pretty."

"Blue," recalled Topaz. "Earth." Steven looked up at her. No false smile, assembled from contrivance, made her mouth curve, this was real, and the glow of her gem grew again until it brightened the cabin. Greg wrapped his arm around Steven as the three of them looked out the front. Steven hugged him back.

Soon the coastline came into view. They would be at the barn in no time, and could introduce Topaz to Lion and Lapiz. He blinked. Lapiz Lazuli, who had also been broken and imprisoned. Bismuth. The Gems in the temple. Jasper. The ones bubbled at the zoo. The Earth Gems there, trapped with Holly Blue Agate.

Steven stared into the distance. Every time he'd heard a story of law and punishment, or witnessed it, among gemkind, it was always draconian. He wondered if it was trait, molded into the fabric of his Gem and the magic that made him. If it was, he'd fight it. In all its forms, and protect Golden Topaz, and Lapiz Lazuli and Peridot, and his Dad, and the Crystal Gems. His family.

"Steven?" chimed Topaz. "Huh?" he snapped out of his thought. She only gave him a quizzical look. "I'm fine- hey! We're almost there!" he pointed at the rising form of the temple. Topaz tilted her head, then put her hand on his shoulder. "Surely we're safe for now." Beach City passed by them on the right, and looked beautiful as the lights came on in the waning sun.


End file.
